April 24-25, 2016
I have chosen to pair these two visits as they were such a contrast to one another. two consecutive days, two different worlds, two conflicting worldviews.
Big Bone Lick State Historic Site, Union, KY
According to their website,
"Big Bone Lick is a unique state park showcasing the remains of some
of America’s most intriguing Ice Age Megafauna. Once covered with
swamps, the land that makes up Big Bone Lick featured a combination of
odorous minerals and saline water that animals found difficult to
resist.
For centuries great beasts of the Pleistocene era came to the swampy
land in what is now known as northern Kentucky to feed. Animals that
frequented Big Bone Lick included bison, both the ancient and the modern
variety; primitive horses, giant mammoths and mastodons, the enormous
stag-moose, and the ground sloth. The earliest peoples, from the Pre-Paleo Period (13,000 BC) down to the
Late Woodland Period (AD 1000), found a seemingly endless supply of
wild game to hunt in and around the mineral and salt springs and Big
Bone Lick became a killing ground for thousands of years. Over the
millennia, the bones gradually accumulated and were frequently covered
by flooding sediments, preserving them for modern archaeologists and
paleontologists to recover in the future."
The site is recognized as the birthplace of American vertebrate paleontology for its significant role in the development of scientific thought regarding extinction and the relationship of paleontology and geology.
"The long history of Big Bone Lick began another chapter on August 25,
1953, when the Big Bone Lick Association, a local history society
dedicated to promoting the site, decided to adopt resolutions that urged
the creation of a state park. The Association wanted a museum
constructed to house some of the objects found at Big Bone Lick. The
citizens of Boone County responded generously to the call for donations.
School children raised over two thousand dollars and by 1958, nearly
six thousand had been donated to purchase land around the site. People
from Boone and Kenton counties, the Covington-Kenton-Boone County
Chamber of Commerce, and the Big Bone Lick Historical Society agreed to
offer the land that had been acquired to the Parks Board for the
Commonwealth of Kentucky for development of a state park. On July 2,
1960, the Parks Board accepted the land."
The Visitor Center Site is a modest one, with a few excellent exhibits. Outdoors, there are numerous walking trails, and an outdoor display features life-size replicas of mammoth, ground sloth and mastodon.
There is also an area where a small bison herd is kept. Three calves had been born within the few days prior to our visit....
To sum up, Big Bone Lick State Historic Site is a smallish park dedicated to the recognition and preservation of science through education. The exhibits are modest as is the budget. Much of the funding was contributed by the community and the site is maintained by the state. Cost of entrance is free.
Now for the Creation 'Museum', Petersburg, KY
The Creation 'Museum' "is operated by the Christian Creationist Apologist ministry Answers in Genesis (AiG) to promote a young Earth creationist explanation of the origins of the universe based on a literal interpretation of the Bible's Genesis Creation narrative." (Wikipedia). Dave and I had heard of this facility a number of months ago and were intrigued enough to include a visit.
You may have noticed that I have put the term museum in quotation marks. This is because, after only a few minutes in the very large facility, it was obvious to us that it is more of a theme park than a museum. Wikipedia continues: "The 60,000-square-foot museum cost $27
million—raised entirely through private donations to AiG—and opened on
May 28, 2007. In addition to the museum proper, the facility also houses
a special effects theater, a planeterium, and a gift shop
and serves as the headquarters of AiG. The museum employs approximately
300 people; all permanent employees must sign a statement of faith
affirming their belief in AiG's principles. In August 2013, AiG
officials estimated that almost 1.9 million people had visited the
museum, with yearly attendance surpassing 250,000 in each year of the
museum's operation. Since its opening, the museum has added a petting zoo, a zip line and sky bridge course, an Allosorus skeleton, and an insect collection."
The exhibits are state-of-the-art and include many interactive animatronics human and animal figures. The essence of the message is, as mentioned in the Wikipedia quote, to promote a "Young Earth" creationist perspective. In other words, to refute (go against and claim to disprove) the scientific evidence for things such as the age of the Universe (according to them no more than 6000 years), evolution, where fossils come from (according to them from the Great flood in which Noah's Ark was saved) and many more.
The Special Effects theater seats more than 400 people and presents two films, "Men in White", billed as a humorous take on the facility's message. I found it extremely offensive as it depicts science teachers as bumbling idiots, one of whom inexplicably seemed to be a transvestite...(As a side note, apparently the founder of Answers in Genesis, Ken Ham was originally a science teacher...see his bio at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ken_Ham). The second film "The last Adam" is about Jesus Christ.
The outside activities (as many inside displays) are clearly geared to children.The theme park feel was strongest here:
and at the petting zoo where one can buy pellets for $0.25 to feed the friendly animals.
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| A buck-toothed alpaca |
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| Zebra-donkey cross and zebra-horse cross |
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| A curious wallabee |
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The grounds and gardens are beautiful and meticulously looked after.
The main building luxurious with its outdoor cafe overlooking the pond
Ken Ham's new project is called Ark Encounter. AiG has purchased more land in KY where their organization is building a "life-size" replica of Noah's Ark, measuring more than 500'. It too will house numerous exhibits, many of them animated. For an idea of the scale (and likely cost!) of this project, see https://arkencounter.com/. it is said to be opening on July 7, 2016.
To sum up, The Creation 'museum' is an enormous theme park dedicated to the promotion of Ken Ham's worldview. Its stated objective is to convince people (and children...) that science is wrong and that our planet is very young indeed, contradicting all available evidence. Admission is $29.95 for adults, $23.95 for seniors, $15.95 for children. Extra costs are charged for planetarium show, and any special activities. Parking is free. Security is on site. "In April 2016, the local County Fiscal Court approved a development plan that will add nearly 1,400
additional parking spots and add a three-level, 210,000 square-foot
museum building, among other expansions that will total between $15
million to $20 million."
In 2007,t he first year of its operation, over 400, 000 people visited the facility, and by the end of 2013, 6 years later, more than 1.9 million had visited. In my worldview, this is truly scary stuff...
