Big Bone Lick State Historic Site opens its 42nd annual Salt Festival on Friday, Oct. 16, with three days of frontier demonstrations, live music and a petting zoo at the 512-acre Boone County park.
The festival runs through Sunday, Oct. 18. Visitors can watch salt-making demonstrations, try archery, throw spears and tomahawks, or listen to storytellers recount settler and Indigenous history, according to the NKY Tribune.
A blacksmith works red-hot iron on-site. Flint knappers shape stone points. Folk and bluegrass music plays throughout the weekend, and a crafters corner sells handmade goods alongside a food court.
The park's bison herd roams the grounds year-round. The herd is the site's only living mammalian link to the Ice Age, according to Kentucky State Parks. The last wild bison in Kentucky was spotted around 1800. Congress designated bison as the nation's National Mammal in 2016.
Big Bone Lick also houses a museum with Ice Age fossils, still-active salt springs and a half-mile paved loop along Big Bone Creek. The National Park Service lists the site as one of 17 in the country holding both a National Natural Landmark designation, earned in 2009, and a National Historic Landmark designation, added in 2024. It is recognized as the birthplace of American vertebrate paleontology.
Hours and admission
- Friday, Oct. 16: 9 a.m. to 3 p.m.
- Saturday, Oct. 17: 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.
- Sunday, Oct. 18: 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.
General admission is $10 for ages 13 and older, $5 for children 6 to 12 and free for children 5 and younger. Tickets are available through the state's registration page.
The park sits 22 miles southwest of Covington on Kentucky Highway 338, off U.S. Highway 42-127 and Interstate 71/75.
Upcoming in Boone County
- Nov. 3 — Election Day across Boone County, with seven contested local races on the ballot.
- Nov. 7 — Free hazardous waste drop-off at Thomas More Stadium in Florence.
