Big Bone Lick State Historic Site

For countless generations the salt-and-sulfur springs here drew animals from miles around, the way a natural salt lick still draws deer today. During and after the last Ice Age, that meant the megafauna of North America: woolly mammoths, American mastodons, giant ground sloths, ancient bison, and more. Many became mired in the soft, marshy ground around the seeps and died there, and their bones accumulated in the mud over thousands of years.

Long before scientists arrived, Native peoples knew the lick well. The Shawnee and other nations, whose ancestral homelands took in this stretch of the Ohio valley before their removal westward, hunted the game the springs attracted and carried away the strange giant bones. Their descendant nations continue today, largely in Oklahoma and beyond. When early European explorers came, Native guides led them to the bone-strewn ground.

In the 1700s, explorers, soldiers, and naturalists began carrying mammoth and mastodon bones away from Big Bone Lick, and the strange fossils stirred debate among the leading scientists of Europe and America over what kind of creatures they had come from. Thomas Jefferson took a deep interest in the bones and, as president, sent an expedition to collect specimens from the lick, some of which he studied at the White House.

Because the fossils here were among the first great collections of extinct animals studied in North America, and because they helped scientists grasp that whole kinds of creatures had vanished from the earth, Big Bone Lick earned its lasting nickname as the birthplace of American paleontology. The digging that began at these springs helped open an entirely new understanding of the ancient world.

A living herd of American bison grazes a pasture on the grounds, a fitting echo of the ancient bison that once used the licks. Visitors can see the herd from viewing areas, a reminder of the great grazing animals that shaped this land. The site's museum, inside the visitor center, displays real Ice Age fossils and tells the layered story of the lick, from the animals to the scientists.

An interpretive trail loops out to the marshy licks themselves, passing life-size figures of mammoths and mastodons positioned as if mired in the mud, which brings the scene vividly to life. Longer trails and a campground extend the visit for those who want to linger in the wooded hills, and the springs still bubble up salty and sulfurous as they always have.

Spring greens the pastures and woods, and the bison are active as the weather warms, a fine time for the interpretive trail.

Summer is warm and full, the busiest season, with families walking the trails and picnicking on the grounds.

Fall brings cool air and turning leaves across the wooded hills, one of the prettiest times to visit.

Winter is quiet and stark, the bare woods opening up the views, with the salt springs still steaming faintly on cold mornings.

The closest Boutel™ stays, so you can turn this stop into an overnight. Each is an independently owned, editorially selected place to stay.