Prehistoric Creatures EarthCache
Hidden : 7/30/2008
Difficulty:
2 out of 5
Terrain:
1.5 out of 5

Size: Size: not chosen (not chosen)

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Geocache Description:

This Earthcache is located at: Big Bone Lick State Park, 3380 Beaver Road Union, KY 41091-9627



You will need to visit a couple of locations in this park, the majority of which will be on the Big Bone Creek Trail which starts out by the Museum.

Over 15-thousand years ago, During the Pleistocene Epoch, a huge ice sheet covered much of North America from Canada down to the Ohio Valley. On the edges of this ice sheet, animals would gather by the warm salt springs that still bubble from the earth at Big Bone Lick State Park.

The salty marsh that attracted these prehistoric visitors (such as the giant mastodons, wooly mammoths and ground sloths) sometimes proved to be deadly. Animals became trapped and perished in what the early pioneers called "jelly ground," leaving skeletons and interesting clues about life in prehistoric Kentucky.

Throughout the mid 1700's vast quantities of bones were collected from the area and transported to museums throughout the world. Thomas Jefferson and Benjamin Franklin personally examined some of the fossils, some of which are on display today at Big Bone Lick Museum.

In 1803, while traveling down the Ohio River to Meet Wm. Clark for the Expedition to the Pacific, Meriwether Lewis visited Big Bone Lick. He needed to gather fossilized bones for Pres. Thomas Jefferson. In September 1807, Clark Supervised a 3 week dig for bones at Jefferson’s request.

The scientific community recognizes the site as the "Birthplace of American Vertebrate Paleontology."

Thanks for visiting, to get credit for this EarthCache please email me the answers to the below questions:

1. How do meat-eating mammals obtain salt?
2. Native Americans arrived at Big Bone Lick sometime before this many years ago?
3. When the springs here were a magnet for tourists, where did many of the guests stay?
4. What ocean covered Kentucky 450 million years ago?
5. How many gallons of brine would it take to make 1 bushel of salt?
6. What year did salt making operations end here?
7. Part of the path that Ingles used to escape is now known as?
8. A possible cause of extinction may have been due to the change form __________ to _________ forest.
9. Unless collected, unearthed bones vanish within a century due to?
10. In what month and year did Clark conduct a major dig for Jefferson?
11. The outcroppings of rocks in the hills surrounding Big Bone Lick hold numerous fossils of oceanic organisms, including these 3 types?
12. Glacial cycles occur due to the Earth’s _____ , _____ & _____ .
13. How many ice-ages have there been and what is the geologists name for the last one?
14. What is the last name for the family cemetery next to the camping entrance?

If possible please post a picture of you and/or your GPS next to one of the signs or with the bison in the background.

As always uploading pictures are optional, but they will help keep things interesting so if you are able to, please do so.

Save the below image: "EarthCache Worksheet" and print it out to help with this cache.

Take your Time, Enjoy the Walk and have fun with the Cache, EarthCaches are not about the numbers.

While you are finding the answers for this EC you can also do 'BBL: Salt and Medical Spring' (GC3T5KX) and 'Caching 101' (GC1CBBW), these are all located on the same Trail.

If you visit the Bison area, take a picture so you can complete the 'Photo Geocoin Challenge' (TB4Z96Y). Look for the trail that starts near the end of the parking lot by the Visitors Center.

Have Fun
Team Jodaku.....

Additional Hints (Decrypt)

*Nyy nafjref rkprcg sbe gur ynfg bar pna or sbhaq ba gur fvtaf gung ner ba gur genvy gung fgnegf ol gur zhfrhz. Genvy urnq fgnegf jvgu gur gvzr yvar fvta arkg gb gur cnexvat ybg.

Decryption Key

A|B|C|D|E|F|G|H|I|J|K|L|M
-------------------------
N|O|P|Q|R|S|T|U|V|W|X|Y|Z

(letter above equals below, and vice versa)


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