A Bony Quagmire

This place was well-known to the Native Americans who lived here, for its salty springs and for the curious crop of bones that lay scattered across the unsteady ground. Their myths explained the bones, and the reason why so many of the bones belonged to animals none among them had ever seen.

Frenchman Charles Lemoyne de Longueil was the first European to report the existence of Big Bone Lick. Interest in the bones heightened with each expedition. The "natural philosophers" of Europe puzzled over the bones and clamored for more. In the decades that followed, dozens of explorers journeyed to Big Bone Lick, and most left with barges full of bones.

Science from the Jelly Ground

The bones raised all kinds of questions. Even the greatest scholars in Europe could not identify some of them, forcing them to add new species to the books in order to classify old, dead bones. Were there any individuals of the species still alive? The theories and beliefs of the time insisted upon it — the idea of extinction didn't jibe with belief in God's perfect creation of life on earth. Thomas Jefferson sent explorers to Big Bone Lick to gather bones. He too could not belief that a rung of the "Great Ladder of Being" would be broken by an extinction. But the bones joined a growing pile of evidence that buried the ladder, and built the foundation of the new theory of evolution.

Big Bone Lick can be counted among the sites that have had a lasting effect on modern science. At least five species made their debut here, including Harlan's musk-ox and Harlan's ground sloth, along with fine examples of many others.