Kimmswick Bone Bed

Kimmswick Bone Bed. A Journey Back Through Time. , The Kimmswick Bone Bed , The late ice-age bone deposits of Kimmswick Bone Bed are contained within what is today Mastodon State Park. The bone bed itself is less than five acres in surface area. The deposits contain evidence of animals from the late Pleistocene Epoch to early Holocene Epoch (recent time) in up to 11 feet of excavated deposit. Evidence of the presence of Indians with mastodon is confined to the upper 3 feet of the deposit about 18 to 36 inches below the surface. The deposits with the Indian-mastodon association are called the Clovis horizons, and there are two Clovis layers separated by a noncultural zone., Archaeology and Paleontology , Archaeologists study man and his use of the environment. Paleontologists are concerned with past fossil evidence of animals. Rarely do these disciplines overlap except in the late Pleistocene and the early Holocene periods, when men first appear in North America at the end of the ice age. Both of these scientific disciplines make use of similar techniques in excavating sites. These techniques involve careful excavation and recording of as much information as possible regarding the context of the artifacts located. As the archaeologist or paleontologist is excavating, that part of the site is destroyed by the excavation itself, and only by keeping as careful a record as possible can the information contained in the soil be kept. The archaeologist or paleontologist also makes use of other scientific disciplines to recover as much information as possible Geologists (who study rocks), geomorphologists (who study land- forming processes), palynologists (who study pollen), malacologists (who study snails), botanists (who study plants), and zoologists (who study animals) all contribute information on a regular basis with other disciplines making contributions as well., National Register of Historic Places , Excavations by staff from the Illinois State Museum on this site in 1979 revealed the first undisputed evidence of the association of early Indians with mastodon in the United States. This promoted the site to international attention. In 1980, the site was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on the basis that "the site provided the first solid evidence for association of the Llano Complex (Clovis) and the American mastodon.", The Development of the Park , A local drive to save the bone bed was initiated in 1970. With the formation of the Mastodon Park Committee in 1974, efforts to save the tract accelerated. A successful fund-drive effort was made to raise part of the money for acquisition, with the state providing the rest of the funds. In 1976, the park was acquired by the Missouri Department of Natural Resources and added to the state park system.