Big Bone, Kentucky

Big Bone Lick, now the site of Big Bone Lick State Park, is a well-known landmark in the immediate area of Big Bone.{{cite web | title=Be part of something mammoth at Big Bone Lick | website=Cincinnati.com | date=September 4, 2017 | url=https://www.cincinnati.com/story/news/local/boone-county/2017/09/04/part-something-mammoth-big-bone-lick/105274806/ | access-date=September 25, 2018}} The salt lick, or lick, as it is more generally known locally, was long known to the original inhabitants of the area. The fossil deposits were a well-known feature in the geographical region. The area was named after the extraordinarily large bones, including those of mammoths and mastodons, found in the swamps around the salt lick frequented by animals, who need salt in their diets.{{cite book | last1=Rafinesque | first1=C.S. | last2=Boewe | first2=C. | title=A C.S. Rafinesque Anthology | publisher=McFarland | year=2005 | isbn=978-0-7864-2147-3 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=-Xub9N6gGwMC&pg=PA32 | language=es | access-date=September 25, 2018 | page=32}} The mineral springs are created by water flowing through the underlying formations of limestone and shale, where the trapped salts are dissolved and carried, in solution, to the surface, creating brine.{{rp|6–7}}

In 1809, a salt furnace featuring two large furnaces with mounted kettles was built to extract salt from the brackish water. It was soon discovered that, due to the relatively low salinity of the springs, 500 to 600 gallons of water were required to produce a single bushel of salt. By 1812 the venture had failed.[https://npgallery.nps.gov/GetAsset/fa5f134d-121d-4301-8d92-db6b65ec7acd "National Register of Historic Places Registration Form: Big Bone Lick State Park," United States Department of the Interior National Park Service, February 2000]{{rp|10–11}}

The Clay House, a resort hotel, opened nearby in 1815, offering visitors an opportunity to bathe in the supposedly medicinal salt mineral springs. It quickly became popular among naturalists, who came to find bones for museums or private collections.{{cite book | last1=Ramage | first1=J. | last2=Watkins | first2=A.S. | title=Kentucky Rising: Democracy, Slavery, and Culture from the Early Republic to the Civil War | publisher=University Press of Kentucky | year=2011 | isbn=978-0-8131-3440-6 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=2FWot7ikWqMC&pg=PA381 | access-date=September 25, 2018 | page=381}} The Clay House closed in 1830,{{cite book | last1=Tenkotte | first1=P.A. | last2=Claypool | first2=J.C. | title=The Encyclopedia of Northern Kentucky | publisher=University Press of Kentucky | series=EBSCO ebook academic collection | year=2015 | isbn=978-0-8131-5996-6 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Zc0eBgAAQBAJ&pg=PA88 | access-date=September 30, 2023 | page=}}{{rp|88}} but the salt springs remained a popular spa until 1847. A second hotel was built in 1870.{{rp|11}}

A post office called Bigbone was established in 1890, and remained in operation until 1941.{{cite web | url=http://www.postalhistory.com/postoffices.asp | title=Post Offices| publisher=Jim Forte Postal History | accessdate=5 January 2017}}

Big Bone Creek enters the Ohio River at mile 516.8 below Pittsburgh. The mouth is at the division of Boone and Gallatin Counties, Kentucky, near the site of Big Bone Island. It is navigable for several miles, and flows through Big Bone Lick State Park.{{cite book | last=Maccracken | first=J. | title=Boone County Kentucky Fishing & Floating Guide Book: Complete fishing and floating information for Boone County Kentucky | series=Kentucky Fishing & Floating Guide Books | year=2017 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=uLU8DwAAQBAJ&pg=PT4 | access-date=September 25, 2018 | pages=pt4–6}}

Big Bone Island was a small, natural island composed of sand and gravel in the Ohio River near the mouth of Big Bone Creek at Big Bone. It is just south of the Boone County line in Gallatin County, Kentucky. Of note is that the county line "runs down the center of the creek". It plays a part in local lore and history of the area and was a popular fishing and camping location. The island has disappeared due mostly to the rise of the river caused by the construction of the Markland Dam, but also due to slabs of floating river ice which destroyed much of the vegetation and carried away most of the soil during the flooding of 1978.{{cite book | last1=Striker | first1=B.B. | last2=Clare | first2=D.E. | last3=Gregory | first3=J. | last4=Harke | first4=C.A. | last5=Sartwell | first5=M. | title=Lost River Towns of Boone County | publisher=Arcadia Publishing Incorporated | year=2010 | isbn=978-1-61423-126-4 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=zKkjCgAAQBAJ&pg=PT108 | access-date=September 25, 2018 | page=pt108}}{{cite book | last=Townsend | first=L. | title=Indiana's Ohio River Scenic Byway | publisher=Arcadia Pub. | series=Images of America | year=2007 | isbn=978-0-7385-4085-6 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=TfpOUuewResC&pg=PA112 | access-date=September 25, 2018 | page=112|postscript=(Includes an image of the former island when it was above the water.)}}

In January 1978, the Ohio River rapidly rose from 29.6 feet on January 25 to 53.9 feet on January 30, during what has been described as "one of the most severe winter months in southwestern Ohio history." This caused an enormous ice jam, which eventually broke, sending "a wall of ice and water" downstream. It has been stated that the decisions and actions of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers on January 27, 1978, at the Markland Dam, caused the ice jam to break. This was characterized as being perhaps the worst disaster in modernity on the Ohio River,[https://pubs.usgs.gov/of/1979/ofr79977/pdf/ofr_79-977.pdf J. N. Sullavan, F. Quinones, and R. F. Flint, Floods of December 1978 in Kentucky, US Geological Survey Report, the Kentucky Geological Survey, and the US Army Corps of Engineers, April 1979] and caused significant damage, with entire docks, barges and boats crammed against or forced through the Markland dam.[https://operations.erdc.dren.mil/infra/pdfs/1978Markland.pdf "A Bridge Over Troubled Waters, 1978," in The Falls City Engineers: A History of the Louisville District Corps of Engineers, United States Army, 1970–1983, by Leland Johnson, U.S. Army Engineer District, 1984]{{rp|89–94}} A towboat and seven barges sank at the dam, three barges were swept over the dam, six barges were unaccounted for, and 11 barges lodged against the dam producing a major pollution and explosion potential.[https://meridian.allenpress.com/iosc/article/1979/1/407/203923/BETWEEN-A-DAM-AND-A-HARD-SPOT C. D. Morrison, "Between a Dam and a Hard Spot," International Oil Spill Conference Proceedings, 1 March, 1979 (1): 407–410.] The ice literally "shaved off" Big Bone Island at the time.

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{{cite web | title=Chronicles of Boone County – Big Bone Island | website=Boone County Public Library | url=https://www.bcpl.org/cbc/doku.php/big_bone_island | access-date=September 25, 2018}}

{{cite book | last=Alexander | first=R.S. | title=A Place of Recourse: A History of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Ohio, 1803-2003 | publisher=Ohio University Press | series=Ohio University Press series on law, society, and politics in the Midwest | year=2005 | isbn=978-0-8214-1602-0 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=6xx0tcwJjewC&pg=PA190 | access-date=September 25, 2018 | pages=190–191}}

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• {{cite news|url=http://www.kypost.com/news/1999/hicks070799.html|title=Life on river: 'Every day is a vacation'|first=Jack|last=Hicks|work=The Kentucky Post|publisher=E. W. Scripps Company|date=1999-07-07|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20050517020933/http://www.kypost.com/news/1999/hicks070799.html|archivedate=2005-05-17}}
• [https://books.google.com/books?id=whbUBqizcFUC Stanley Hedeen, Big Bone Lick: The Cradle of American Paleontology, University Press of Kentucky, 2008] {{ISBN|0813172926}}

• [https://web.archive.org/web/20091027012850/http://geocities.com/bigbonehistory/ Historical Documents at Big Bone History]
• [http://www.nkyviews.com/boone/boone_big_bone.htm Historical Images of Big Bone]
• [https://web.archive.org/web/20091027080119/http://geocities.com/boonehistory/bigbone.lewisandclark.html Lewis and Clark and Big Bone Lick]
• [https://web.archive.org/web/20140621075807/http://big-bone-lick.com/ Big Bone Lick Blog]

{{Boone County, Kentucky}}

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Category:Unincorporated communities in Boone County, Kentucky

Category:Unincorporated communities in Kentucky