Big Bone Lick State Historic Site, Kentucky

Salt licks at Big Bone Lick State Park

NPS

Quick Facts

Location:

3380 Beaver Rd, Union, KY 41091

Significance:

Meriwether Lewis stopped here in 1803 to collect fossils for President Thomas Jefferson. William Clark returned here in 1807 to do the same.

Designation:

Lewis and Clark National Historic Trail, National Natural Landmark, National Register of Historic Places

MANAGED BY:

Big Bone Lick State Historic Site

Amenities

18 listed

Benches/Seating, Electrical Hookup - Boat/RV, Gifts/Souvenirs/Books, Groceries/Convenience Items, Historical/Interpretive Information/Exhibits, Parking - Auto, Parking - Bus/RV, Picnic Table, Playground, Restroom, Restroom - Accessible, Showers, Swimming Pool, Tent Campsites, Trailhead, Trash/Litter Receptacles, Water - Hookup - Boat/RV, Wheelchair Accessible

Lewis and Clark NHT Visitor Centers and Museums

Visitor Centers (shown in orange), High Potential Historic Sites (shown in black), and Pivotal Places (shown in green) along the Lewis and Clark National Historic Trail

What’s a lick, and what do big bones have to do with it? 

A “lick” is a term for a natural occurrence of salt. They usually appear around sulfur springs, which are places where water and minerals bubble out of the ground. It often smells like rotten eggs.  

People call these places “licks” because animals like to lick the salty deposits.  

The “big bone” part of its name came from huge bones in this bog. Indigenous oral tradition states that the bones were from the white buffalo, who died when they drank the salty water.

Western scientists theorized that animals—including mammoths and mastodons—who came for a salty treat got trapped in the marshy areas around the springs. This site was influential in the American development of paleontology and theories of animal extinction 

Thomas Jefferson knew about this place and asked Meriwether Lewis to stop and collect some fossils and send them back. 

Someone was already running the place as a tourist destination, so, Lewis had no trouble finding it. “Mr. David Ross of Virginia” decided before Lewis arrived that he did not want anyone taking anything from the lick anymore, probably because people had quickly taken most of the biggest fossils. 

Lewis convinced a fellow collector, Dr. William Goforth of Cincinnati, to send specimens already excavated to Jefferson. William Clark returned to the site four years later to retrieve more fossils. 

These were animal bones, not human remains. Still, was it okay for Lewis and Clark to take these fossils? 

About this article: This article is part of a series called “Pivotal Places: Stories from the Lewis and Clark National Historic Trail.”