Big Bone

Five miles below Rabbit Hash is located Big Bone Lick, back a mile or two from the river. The historical and zoological importance of this spot has already been discussed; today the brackish water only seeps from the earth at the bottom of its bowl among the hills and, although there may still be plenty of evidence of their passing buried beneath the surface, no bones of prehistoric beasts now dot the landscape. 

The town of Big Bone is remarkable for its dilapidation.  There are two mercantile establishments, half a dozen houses, and a church, which, by the apparent iniquity of Big Bone's inhabitants, must be considerably less than 100 percent efficient in the business of soul saving. Of the ten citizens of the place in evidence on a Saturday afternoon in the fall of 1948, five were obviously in an advanced state of intoxication, one was less than ten years old, and two were apparently in their late eighties, leaving a minority of two eligible adults sober - but of course it was fairly early in the afternoon.  Big Bone is apparently a place of trouble, for men, as well as mammoths.

from R. E. Banta's book on the Ohio River, The Ohio, published in 1949.