Big Bone Island - updated text

[James Duvall]

Big Bone Island

by

James Duvall, M. A.


Big Bone Island is a natural feature of the Ohio River in Kentucky. Though is has now disappeared it has been part of the history of the area since its exploration and settlement, which began about 1730.

According to the map of 1883 Big Bone Island is about 2,285 feet long, just over half a mile, and about 474 feet wide. It is about 514 feet at its widest part. According to this map, which seems to rely on pacing off (which is not possible over water), and estimating distances, the island is 423 feet from the shore on the Kentucky side. It is 1,010 feet to the Indiana shore. The distance across the entire river at that point was 1,829 feet, according the the 1883 map. The comparible distance today at that point, the level of the river being affected by the Markland Dam to the south, is 2,507 feet. The map shows the head of the Island as being just over a mile below Hamilton, Kentucky, that is, about 6,680 feet, and 615 feet from the center of the mouth of Big Bone Creek.

The island shows up on survey map on 1923. Here the island appears even with or slightly to the north of the mouth of Big Bone Creek, which is different from all the other extant maps. While it is possible the island may have shifted due to sedimentation and other water related phenomena it seems more likely that the map was not quite accurate in this respect. It appears much closer to the Kentucky shore than to Indiana. Whereas the 1883 map shows a projection on the northern end of the island it appears rounded in this map, but there is a slight indentation on the Indiana side of the southern end of the island. This change of shape is quite consistent with the possibilities of soil shiftine over a forty year period

Chart number 33 in the 1929 (4th) edition of the Ohio River Charts shows the Big Bone Bar or Island (depending on the water level) at mile 516.4 below Pittsburgh. It also shows a light, which was white, on the Island -- Government Light 225. The notation reads: "Channel past bar lies near left bank, with good depth of water." Chart number 31 of the 5th edition (1935) shows the foot of Big Bone Island at mile 517.4, or 463.6 miles above the mouth of the river. The Island is on the right of the channel, which means the boats had to pass on the Kentucky side. The Island is clearer in this edition, and appears to be about the center of the river, with the Big Bone Bar occupying a much larger area around it.

In 1942 the island is a feature on the Gallatin County highway map, but it appears as two very close islands, doubtless the result of high water. That there was enough variation of the terrain on the island to produce this result is evident from the topographic map of the area. The island appears somewhat like the shape of a paramecium in the topographic map. It appears to be very nearly pointed on the southern end. It also appears very near the center of the river, perhaps closer to the Indiana side. The side on which the channel is deepest is not marked, but one would guess from the map probably the Kentucky side.

The island was visited by Harlan Hubbard in 1945 on his shantyboat trip with his wife down the river to New Orleans. He recorded this in his diary and an account of it appears in his book Shantyboat. Here is his description of his encounter:

"I went up to Big Bone Island for dry hardwood to burn in the cookstove since our shore afforded nothing but willow. It was something of an adventure to land on the strange island — a wild, uncared-for place scoured by past floods. In the driftwrack caught on the head of the island, I found a dry walnut log, excellent fuel and a pleasure to work up. When burning, its fragrant smoke scented the wintry air." (p. 109)

It is uncertain if there was any wood on the island but willow.

Hubbard made an trek into the countryside, but he found it "a rough, brushy country of worn-out and abandoned farms." He did not bother to visit the lick because he knew there were no bones to be found there, but assured us he would have done so if any relics had remained. He received a pleasant visit from the farmer who owned the land on which he was camping, probably a Gallatin county owner. They also washed clothes here, getting water from a creek, perhaps Big Bone? He also rowed across to the Indiana side and found the farms much more profitable, gleaning ears of corn from the already harvested fields.

 
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James Duvall, M. A.
Big Bone University
Nec ossa solum, sed etiam sanguinem.
Big Bone, Kentucky