Big Bone Lick

Melissa is a homeschool mom to three beautiful children ages 12, 10, and 3.  They use Charlotte Mason’s educational philosophies of learning the natural, everyday hands-on life way.  They especially enjoy learning and growing together beyond the classroom doors in God’s amazing creation in nature.

On Wednesday they went on a very fun field trip with some of the other families from their co-op to Big Bone Lick State Park.  Their naturalist guide taught the kids three different sessions on bison, animal tracks, and survival in the wild.

Melissa was surprised to learn that bison are quite dangerous.  They do not like anyone or anything in their territory and will quickly charge to eliminate it.  And the fact that they can weigh up to a ton, run 40 mph (humans can’t run that fast, even Olympics competitors), and can leap over 6 feet, she wouldn’t want to get in their space.  Bison are primarily all muscle, and that is how they are so powerful.

 See more photos on Melissa’s blog

Following is a summary of events at Big Bone Lick State Park for the remainder of 2009.  See the official Big Bone Lick website for event details and updates.

When does curious become nosy?

JR from Cincinnati and her husband were asking themselves that question on Valentine’s Day when visiting Big Bone Lick in Kentucky.  They had just come from Rabbit Hash in a strange frame of mind, given the unusual characteristics of that small hamlet.  On a whim, instead of walking to see the bison herd as they usually do when visiting there, they headed down to the sulphur spring.

After a few wrong turns, they finally smelled, and then saw, the spring.  They took some photos and marveled at the briny bubbles coming up from the ground.  That’s when her husband saw a single red rose in the grass right off the trail.

Upon closer inspection, they discovered it had a note wound tightly around the stem and tied with a piece of blue ribbon.  Nobody else was in the parking lot or on the trail, so they decided to take a peek.

Read the rest at Guerilla Wordfare

Starting Friday through September 7, visitors to the Cincinnati Museum Center at Union Terminal will be the first to see a new traveling exhibit that focuses on feathered dinosaurs, called Dinosaurs Unearthed.

The exhibit includes 24 life-size, moving, roaring dinosaur models — from the 14-inch-tall, feathered microraptor to the 22-foot-tall, 55-foot-long apatosaurus outside Union Terminal.  Eight have feathers, and visitors can control four non-feathered models themselves with the push of a button and the flip of a switch.  The exhibit is accompanied by the Omnimax film "Dinosaurs Alive!," which also runs through Sept. 7.

The 15,000-square-foot exhibit will be the largest traveling dinosaur exhibit to come to Greater Cincinnati.  Although there have been other exhibits that included feathered dinosaurs, producers believe Dinosaurs Unearthed is the first to feature life-size models.

The exhibit include pieces of fossil discoveries from Big Bone Lick State Park.  These fossils will appear in the display case at the entrance to the museum in this brand-new installation.

Digital Dinos:  You will also be able to view interactive online exhibits about Big Bone Lick and feathered dinosaurs at the museum’s website.  Surf from your home or try your hand at Smartboard technology with the Museum Center’s digital dinos while you’re there.  On-location browsing requires museum admission.

Museum admission: $8 adults, $7 seniors 60 and older, $6 for children 3-12.

Story at Cincinnati.com

Dinosaurs Unearthed webpage

Jana took a bunch of nice photos of the winter foliage and buffalo at Big Bone Lick State Park.  Check out Jana’s entire photo set.

Check out the the Big Bone Lick photo galleries at the Cincinnati Enquirer:

In this Enquirer photo by Patrick Reddy, a herd of 17 bison roams a new 40-acre pasture at Big Bone Lick State Park.  The herd includes a 2,200 pound bull and three calves.  The herd was moved from an 18-acre plot that had been its home for about 15 years.

Big Bone Lick Bison photo gallery

Big Bone Lick gallery #2

Big Bone Lick State Park has been named a National Natural Landmark (NNL), the National Park Service announced today.  The park joins an elite group of 586 sites across the United States that have received NNL status.  The program began 1962 to recognize and preserve important natural history sites.

Big Bone is one of four sites added today to the NNL program.  The others sites are: Nottingham Park Serpentine Barrens in Pennsylvania, Cave Without a Name in Texas, and the Chazy Fossil Reef in Vermont and New York.

A National Park Service press release says: “Big Bone Lick in Boone County, Kentucky is unique for its combination of salt springs and associated Late Pleistocene bone beds.  The site has been referred to as the birthplace of vertebrate paleontology in North America.  The Big Bone fossils played a very important role in the development of scientific thought regarding the idea of extinction and the relationship of geology and paleontology.”

Story at Cincinnati Enquirer