Big Bone Lake State Historic Site in Boone County, is one of only 16 places in the country to be both a National Natural Landmark and a National Historic Landmark.

The park became a historical landmark in 2024.

Our Mackenzie Spink was at the park last week for a community celebration.

It's a great recognition for the park to receive.

It's actually the highest federal recognition that a property can receive based on its either historical, architectural, or archeological value in significance.

So we're very excited that the award has finally, or the designation has finally been given to the park based on its significance and contributions to paleontology and archeology.

We got the National Natural Landmark status in 2009 about two years later, they came back and said, hey, do you want to write the National Historic Landmark?

And I said, sure.

And we've been working on that one ever since.

So it's been at least 12 years in the making.

The historic landmark is a little different because the natural landmark is the setting.

It's the actual fossils, and they're actual physical characteristics and the mineral springs.

The historic landmark is all about why is that significant?

The park would be historically significant due to the real understanding of what happened in early North America, especially centered around the Pleistocene.

And that all comes from bones and artifacts that were covered here through the 17th and 18th centuries.

Most notably, the 1807 dig was William Clark of the famed Lewis and Clark, in which several new species were identified.

And that was actually the first organized and funded excavation for bones in North America, which made Big Bone like the birthplace of American vertebrate paleontology.

They are figuring out what are these bones?

You know, well, they're not here anymore.

And so then they started talking about, well, maybe they're extinct.

You know, what does that mean?

They're defining new species.

And so you take, like, you have bones, like a mastodon tooth or a mammoth tooth, and you use those and they're called type specimens.

And so they would define an entire species based on bones from here.

Oh, I see what you do.

What do I see?

The community really loves us.

Loves this park.

But after we heard how many letters of support were sent in for Big Bone to receive this designation, it was almost overwhelming the amount of, you know, joy and love and caring that the community has, and especially the school students that, you know, took the time to write letters.

It just means so much to have the community's support and also know that they, you know, see Big Bone like as the gem that it is.

Big Bone Lick State Historic Site received the highest number of support letters of all the 2024 nominees for this designation.

Congrats to them.