Big Bone Lick State Park | |
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Type | Kentucky state park |
Location | Boone County, Kentucky |
Nearest city | Union, Kentucky |
Coordinates | 38°53′13″N 84°44′52″W / 38.88694°N 84.74778°W |
Area | 525 acres (212 ha)[1] |
Elevation | 469 feet (143 m)[2] |
Created | 1960[1][3] |
Operated by | Kentucky Department of Parks |
Open | Year-round |
NRHP reference No. | 72001585[4] |
Added to NRHP | June 13, 1972 |
Designated | 2009 |
Big Bone Lick State Park is located at Big Bone in Boone County, Kentucky. The name of the park comes from the Pleistocene megafauna fossils found there.[5] Mammoths are believed to have been drawn to this location by a salt lick deposited around the sulfur springs.[6] Other animals including forms of bison, caribou, deer, elk, horse, mastodon, musk ox, peccary, ground sloths, wolves, black bears, stag moose, saber-toothed cats, and possibly tapir[7] also grazed the vegetation and salty earth around the springs that the animals relied on for their diet.[8][9] The majority of fossils found in the area have been dated to the Wisconsin Glacial Period (c. 115,000 – c. 11,700 years ago).[10] Human burials and other signs of human habitation have also been uncovered.[11]
history
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