Be a Part of Something Mammoth

[Pat L]

The Big Bone Project Challenge

            In June 2014, the Friends of Big Bone was awarded a $70,000 grant from the RC Durr Foundation, and in addition presented FOBB with a unique challenge. For every dollar donated by the public, the Durr Foundation would match it up to $70,000 until December of 2015.

            With the initial grant, the revitalization of the Visitor’s Center has begun, and the Exhibit Team from the Cincinnati Museum Center is currently underway in redoing the Center’s thematic cases. The cost of the entire project is $206,500 and is scheduled to be completed in May of 2016. Donations have been small but steady, amounting to $4500 which doubles to $9000 with the challenge dollars from the Durr Foundation.

 

The Need for Something Mammoth

            The Greater Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky region is fortunate to have an historical gem in the form of Boone County’s Big Bone Lick State Historic Site, which may be described as “a diamond in the rough.” Big Bone Lick has been designated the birthplace of American vertebrate paleontology, but a lack of resources has prevented the effective display of the large fossil bones that have given the park its name. Thus the stories surrounding this designation are inadequately known to the visiting public.

 

Big Bone ’s New Interpretive Center

            The goal, therefore, is to reconfigure the selected specimens and artifacts that are currently on display in the Visitor Center with interactive and educational displays that relate the site’s exciting story more comprehensively to the visiting public. Friends of Big Bone and Big Bone Park personnel have developed a strong partnership with the Cincinnati Museum Center which has brought energy and expertise to the project. Kentucky State Parks has agreed to the revitalization of the Visitor Center and will assume all maintenance and operating costs going forward. This confluence of events is unprecedented and the time is ripe to undertake the project and see it through to its completion. All interested parties have the same goal: educating the public about the local, national and international significance of Big Bone Lick.

 

 

Be a Part of Something Mammoth

·        Make a donation on line to www.friendsofbigbone.org. Click Donate which will open to PayPal.

·        Mail donations to: Friends of Big Bone

                                      PO Box 675

                                      Union, KY 41091