Notes on a Museum at Big Bone Lick

This evening I crashed a "by invitation only" party of the Friends of Big Bone, and was asked not to say anything. That was a good thing, because it is always tempting to say what needs to be said, even if it doesn't do any good.

The question at stake was this: Since there is never going to be a Museum at Big Bone, what do we do instead?

Now that is not really a very good question. Rather, a better question is "What do you mean by Museum?" or "Do we really have anything to do at Big Bone Lick?" or even better "If something needs to be done at Big Bone Lick, are we the people to do it?"

I think the answer to the first is: "A building with exhibits that tells about the history and natural history of the Lick."

The answer to the second is: "Maybe we will have something to do if we can get the right people involved."

The answer to the third is: "No 'we' are not the right people to do this, but that doesn't mean that nothing can be done."

What needs to happen at Big Bone is for someone (me) to publish a history of the area. I am working towards that, and hope to finish before too long. I have some done already, and more in the planning stages. I am also collecting and editing the original documents from which this must be done.

The problem with the people who want to "do something" about Big Bone Lick, is that it is not "their" history. They see it as something interesting, something to be exploited, either personally, or for the community. They do not know enough about the history of the area to truly appreciate it as a place. They see it as a footnote to science: The birth-place of "inveterate" paleontology. That is not the way I see it at all. The local people have always appreciated Big Bone as a unique geographical place. It was an integral part of the community long before it became a park. There have been numerous attempts to make it into an attraction like other natural wonders, but all of the major attempts failed for some reason or other. It has always aroused fascination, but it has never been quite attractive enough to become a commercial attraction. Its history has never been written. How do you write the history of a Lick? You write the history of the people who thought about it, worked at it, were influenced by it in any way.

It is a history of salt — sweat and tears. It is a history of exploitation. It is a history of fame, near fame, and obscure fame. It is both more and less than its promise. It will never be Niagara, or the Grand Canyon, or even Natural Bridge. It is not that spectacular. Not even when there were bones on the ground. It was more subtle in its influence and required more appreciation than those places required. It was such that people could use the bones for everyday purposes. They could use the springs for domestic and commercial purposes; not until Niagara was harnessed for electricity could the same be said for any of the other attractions I have named. Big Bone Lick was like a vast hoard of treasure that is carried away a little at a time, till at last there is nothing but the name; even the springs have gone into abeyance, and are at a very low ebb. Knowledge about the area's past trickles out into the world at about the same rate.

Anyone who is truly interested in Big Bone will be more interested in the history of the area than any other aspect of it. That history cannot be just the study of some old bones. A museum must be more than just a collection of old bones and teeth. Nec ossa solum, sed etiam sanguinem. What is needed is a living history museum. What was taken in the past is basically worthless for research purposes in any case. I think Adrienne Mayor is on the right track when she writes: "Both scientists and traditional Indians agree that context is crucial in reading the messages of past life-forms, that something important is lost when creatures of the deep past are torn from their matrix. Johnson Holy Rock, Lakota elder, explained it to me this way: 'To take fossils out of the ground snaps the line of knowledge.' Later at the Sternberg Museum in Hays, Kansas, I mentioned this to paleontologist Greg Liggert. He nodded, 'Excavation is information destruction.' " (Fossil Legends of the First Americans, Princeton, 2005, p. 321.) Most of the finds of the past are now virtually worthless.

The past is what is left to us. This we can understand, if we approach it the right way. Fustel de Coulanges, one of the great early historians, said "Fortunately, the past never dies for man. Man may forget it, but he always preserves it within him." ( The Ancient City, 1864; Anchor ed., p. 14) Since this is true we can be sure the true significance of Big Bone will never be lost.

James Duvall, M. A.
Big Bone University
Big Bone, Kentucky
2008