4/23 Big Bone Lick State Park, KY

I chose this place to stay a couple of days because it was not too far off I-75 and had electric service and open space for my satellite.  It also sounded a bit interesting, and I like anything with a museum. The history of this place is that there was a creek flowing through a broad valley where salt from an ancient ocean was seeping to the surface, creating a "lick" for animals.  Over thousands of years, animals came and sometimes got trapped in the soggy ground and died. 

In the 1800s, as the area was settled, people noticed the large bones appearing out of the soil as it eroded after rains.  It also had some important visitors:

 

The museum is very small, but it did have a few nice specimens.  Almost all of the many bones removed from this site over the decades are in other museums.

There also was a display outside.  I did not take the hiking trail because it was a mile long, and I had other things to do.

Nice part was seeing that the violets were in bloom! 

 

Back at the campground, I stopped at the old root cellar near the entrance station.  Very interesting place and an efficient way to keep food cold in the days before refrigeration.

 I was reminded that the modern home I stayed in when I was an exchange student to the Netherlands long ago also had a root cellar, although they had a refrigerator  in the kitchen, too.  The cellar there had sand/earthen walls, and the Dutch family kept canned fruits and cheese down there.  I was always amazed at how clean it was without insects or cobwebs.  Like this old one, the temperature was always about 55 degrees.