Episode 012 Field Notes Big Bone Lick Bone Heist
The following are notes captured during the research and refinement process. The released episode is the refined product durived from these notes. Therefore, they ARE NOT refined. These notes do include additional reference material and information not included in the final version of the episode. Some elements were not included in the final release because additional validation is required. Some portions were omitted due to time restraints. Multiple drafts of the narrative is sometime included. This information has been provided for fellow historians and researchers interested in advancing the story, and to illustrate the process used to create these episodes. As always, validate and confirm before use.
See Notes Below:
Big Bone Lick Bone Heist
Note to the readers and viewers. Further research is required to determine exactly when the devious Mr. Ashe floated the bones down the Ohio and Mississippi rivers. In an undated letter (believed to be written in 1807) to Jefferson, Dr. Goforth writes “…The bones I collected were unfortunately entrusted to the care of a person who descended the Mississippi with them some months since…”. The exact date of the letter and the exact number of months would be helpful when pinpointing Mr. Ashe’s travels. Publication dates of Ashes plagiarized and embellished writings indicates that Ashe would have transported the bones in 1805 or 1806 (not 1807 when Clark was performing his dig at Big Bone Lick). Then again…Everything that Mr. Ashe wrote needs to be carefully examined. There is reason to believe that Thomas Jefferson and Charles Willson Peale may have known (or knew of) Mr. Ashe. There is also reason to believe that William Bullock and Thomas Ashe knew each other before Ashe arrived at the custom house. These most likely pre-established relationships add a new layer of intrigue and possibilities into the true story of this “Indiana Jones” adventure, con, and heist.
Jefferson, Lewis and Clark Big Bone https://ket.pbslearningmedia.org/resource/science_fossils/mastodons-and-monticello/
Crawford Museum https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ocy-HW8idBA
Salt Springs https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rWBu494r1e0
Methodist Church https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZV5TPN4G92g
Fishing the Area https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vUfwNoTRu0I
Northern Ky https://www.nkyviews.com/boone/boone_big_bone.htm
Graveyard to Mastodons https://www.nkyviews.com/boone/text/big_bone_feature.html
Big Boone History https://springs.bcplhistory.org/history/
William Bullock https://www.cincinnati.com/story/news/2017/03/21/ideal-town-hygeia-planned-northern-kentucky/99471872/
Bullock’s natural history display https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Egyptian_Hall
Bullock purchased bones is 1806
In 1819, Bullock sold his ethnographical and natural history collection at auction and converted the museum into an exhibition hall. Purchased land in Ludlow around 1827
Ironically, William Bullock traveled to America in 1827, and coming up the Ohio River, fell in love with Thomas Carneal’s Elmwood Hall home in what is now Ludlow.
Dr. William Goforth (1766-1817).
William Bullock https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Bullock_(collector)
The Clay House, a resort hotel, opened 1815- 1830. A second hotel was built in 1870
Hotels https://springs.bcplhistory.org/history/medicinal-popularity/
Bath house https://omekas.bcplhistory.org/s/cbc/item/13535 (Verification needed)
Elmwood Hall 244 Forest Ave, Ludlow, KY 41016 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elmwood_Hall_(Ludlow,_Kentucky)
Thomas Ashe and Dr. William Goforth https://nkytribune.com/2017/12/our-rich-history-the-story-behind-big-bone-licks-big-bone-heist-by-con-artist-thomas-ashe/
In 1804 or 1805, Goforth moved the collection to Pittsburgh, in the hopes that he could sell it to Peale’s American Museum or to the American Philosophical Society, both in Philadelphia. Instead, in 1806, the dashing but dastardly Ashe traveled down the Ohio River, assumed a French alias, met Goforth at Cincinnati, and contracted with him to sell his collection. https://nkytribune.com/2017/12/our-rich-history-the-story-behind-big-bone-licks-big-bone-heist-by-con-artist-thomas-ashe/
Books of interest:
“Big Bone Lick” by Willard Rouse Jillian and published by Standard Printing Co
“Memoirs of mammoth and various other extraordinary and stupendous bones” by Thomas Ashe
Salt water kills mammoths in Alaska https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2016/08/the-lonely-thirsty-final-days-of-the-doomed-alaskan-mammoths/493886/
Detail account of Thomas Ashe https://www.jstor.org/stable/1892561?typeAccessWorkflow=login&seq=4
Book Memoirs of Mammoth By Ashe https://www.google.com/books/edition/Memoirs_of_mammoth_and_various_other_ext/6nc-AAAAcAAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=Memoirs+of+Mammoth&printsec=frontcover
Two routes from river. Riverboat to Rising Sun, cross river to Rabbit Hash and travel by land (south-east) to Big Bone, or land at Boone Landing and travel by land (north-east) to Big Bone.
October 19, 1755 Mary Draper Ingall escaped her Shawnee captives and traveled 500 to 600 miles, crossing 145 rivers and creeks and averaged between eleven and twenty-one miles a day, until arriving at, what is now, Pembroke, Virgina, on December, 1 1755, 42 days after leaving Big Bone Lick
Thomas Jefferson (April 13, 1743 – July 4, 1826)
Email on 10.16/2023 to Library@Monticello.org
I am conducting research regarding Thomas Jefferson intertest in, and attempts to obtain, bones from Big Bone Lick. If my timeline is correct, Dr Goforth (of Kentucky) had 5-6 tons of bones collected in 1802-03 before Thomas Jefferson engaged Lewis and Clark in 1807. I have found references to Dr Goforth and Thomas Jefferson discussing cost associated with performing a dig. However, no evidence of engagement. In fact, the timeline indicates that Thomas Jefferson elected to place his hopes in Lewis and Clark, instead of engaging Dr Goforth. My primary question is why?
I have found connections/relationship between Thomas Ashe and Thomas Jefferson, Thomas Ashe and Dr. Goforth, and Thomas Ashe and William Bullock. I’m trying to understand how and why Dr. Goforth’s collection bypassed Thomas Jefferson and found its way to William Bullock’s Egyptian Hall in Piccadilly, London in 1806. Note: I am aware of Thomas Ashe’s habit of plagiarizing and modifying his writings to enhance the reader’s experience and to elevates his status and income. I understand William Bullock’s dealings and collections. I’m confused as to why Thomas Jefferson (who wanted the bones) and Dr. Goforth (who was willing to sell) failed to directly connect. Was funding not available to directly purchase Dr. Goforth’s collection, and was Thomas Jefferson trying to obtain a collection under the budget allocated under the Lewis and Clark Corps of Discovery Expedition?
Per Francis H. Herrick, In 1804 Thomas Ashe attracted the attention of President Jefferson, through whom he was made editor of the National Intelligencer. Then, still remaining editor, he was appointed to the office of precis writer to the department of state.
NBC News Elephants Killed by Lightning https://youtu.be/pEfXkrfjK0k?si=TKoGRHvZKtW3zL1P
Climate Change https://www.nrdc.org/stories/rapid-warming-not-hunters-killed-woolly-mammoth
Lightning kills reindeer herd https://www.theverge.com/2016/8/29/12690402/lightning-strike-kills-norway-reindeer-death-why-science
Per the legend told by the Delaware warriors to the Governor of Virginia during the American Revolution. The following was written.
“In ancient times a herd of these tremendous animals came to Big Bone licks and began an universal destruction of the bear, deer, elks, buffaloes, and other animals which had been created for the use of the Indians: that the Great Man above, looking down and seeing this, was so enraged that he seized his lightning, descended on the earth, seated him self on a neighboring mountain, on a rock of which his seat and the print of his feet can still be seen, and hurled his bolts among them till the whole of them was slaughtered, except for the big bull, who presented his forehead to the shafts, shook then off as they fell; but missing one at length, it wounded him in the side; whereon, springing round, he bounded over the Ohio, over the Wabash, the Illinois, and finally over the great lakes, where he is living to this day.”
“Notes on the State of Virginia” by Thomas Jefferson Philadelphia, 1801
Dr. Goforth Collapsible Lion https://www.cincinnatimagazine.com/citywiseblog/cincinnati-curiosities-dr-goforths-collapsible-lion/
John Hunt Morgan https://springs.bcplhistory.org/history/
Thomas Ashe https://www.lindahall.org/about/news/scientist-of-the-day/thomas-ashe/
Thomas Ashe http://www.ricorso.net/rx/az-data/authors/a/Ashe_T1/life.htm
Episode 012 Narrative
I was fishing within the Big Bone Lick Park located in northern Kentucky. I recommend fishing further downstream, past the confluence of Gum Branch and Big Bone Creek. From there to Boone’s Landing, there are several great places to fish. After the bridge on Bender Road the water deepens. From there to the river, you may want to consider a boat, kayak, or float tube.
Now…Every year in October, the Big Bone Lick Park features the Salt Festival. This area is pack full of notable historic names such as Mary Draper Ingles, who in October of 1755 escaped from the Shawnee, right here at Big Bone Lick. She and another woman traveled for 40-days, crossed 145 creeks and/or rivers, and trekked over 450 miles. She arrived home in Eggleston, Virgina on December 1, 1755.
During the civil war the Confederate General, John Hunt Morgan and Captain Thomas Hines escaped from a Union Prison in Columbus, Ohio, they dined at a Boone County home where community members gathered to meet the southern general. After dinner, the two men were escorted, in the middle of the night, past Big Bone Lick, across Mud Lick Creek and escaped through Gallatin County. I recon it could be said, these folks believed in southern hospitality.
The story I want to tell you, involves Lewis and Clark, Thomas Jefferson, Dr. Goforth, William Bullock and the devious Thomas Ashe.
Long before the white man arrived in Kentucky the Indians knew of the great bones that where visible in the banks of the licks and massed in this area. European accounts of the bones can be traced back to a 1765 report, from Colonel George Croghan. Ben Franklin wrote about the bones in 1767. Thomas Jefferson wrote about these elephant bones in 1781. In his book “Notes On The State Of Virgina”, on page 40, he records the story told by a Delaware Chief when asked by the Governor of Virgina”
“In ancient times a herd of these tremendous animals came to Big Bone licks and began an universal destruction of the bear, deer, elks, buffaloes, and other animals which had been created for the use of the Indians: that the Great Man above, looking down and seeing this, was so enraged that he seized his lightning, descended on the earth, seated himself on a neighboring mountain, on a rock of which his seat and the print of his feet can still be seen, and hurled his bolts among them till the whole of them was slaughtered, except for the big bull, who presented his forehead to the shafts, shook then off as they fell; but missing one at length, it wounded him in the side; whereon, springing round, he bounded over the Ohio, over the Wabash, the Illinois, and finally over the great lakes, where he is living to this day.”
Even today there are different theories on why so many bones where in this area. Some say the mammoth animals sunk into the soft “jelly” ground that surrounded the licks. Other wonder if the salt intake itself may have killed the animals, while others ponder if man took advantage of the animals’ attraction to the salt licks, killed the animals for meat and left the bones. I tend to lean towards the stories told by the original inhabitants…. A few years ago, Lighting did kill a herd of 18 elephants in India. Perhaps the old Delaware Chief knew more than we first thought.
Regardless, animals and humans were attracted to the salt licks, and the bones of several different species accumulated over 1000’s of years. Leaving room for several correct overlapping theories.
A large number of bones were still here in 1801 when Jefferson became President. The theories associated with evolution didn’t appear until 1859 and the thought that species could go extinct was still an abstract idea waiting to be founded. Therefore, many believed these giant animals were still alive and had migrated elsewhere, just waiting to be found.
Jefferson was passionate about having these bones collected. Personally, his scientific curiosity had peaked, and he believed the study of these bones would advance scientific studies and place this new nation onto the world stage.
When it comes to bones, size matters, and everyone wanted the biggest bones.
Jefferson was a leading member of the American Philosophical Society and was working through this organization to establish the means to collect these bones.
This task wasn’t going to be easy. In 1801 Several Indian Nations still occupied Kentucky. The Trail of Tears did not start until 1830. The first steam-powered boat on the Ohio River was the New Orleans, and she wasn’t built until 1811. The Falls of the Ohio laid downstream in Louisville Kentucky and working a keelboat upstream was hard work. The American Philosophical Society was in Philadelphia and the bones were 600 miles away hidden in the Dark and Bloody Lands of Kentucky.
But Jefferson was not the only one interested in these bones, others recognized the value and significance of these archaeological artifacts and the Indiana Jones style race to find, collect, and transport these bones was already underway. And just like in the movies, there was government influences that went straight to the top, hostile natives, treachery, heroes, and foreign and domestic villains.
In 1800 Doctor Goforth settled in Cincinnati. He was the first doctor in the frontier west to acquire and administer the smallpox vaccine in 1801. Soon thereafter he learned of the bones located 43 miles down stream at Big Bone Lick. In 1803 he began archaeological digs in the area.
On April 30, of the same year, the United States signed the Louisiana Purchase Treaty with Napoleon and the French Government for 15 million dollars. The American Philosophical Society began to make plans for the Lewis and Clark expedition into the Louisiana Territory. On October 4, 1803, Lewis, at the request of Thomas Jefferson stopped at Big Bone Lick on his way to Louisville to meet up with Clark.
It was obvious to Lewis that Dr Goforth had beaten them to the bones. He would return, but winter was setting in and he needed to get to Louisville and on to Saint Louis to start the expedition on May 14, 1804.
While Lewis and Clark were exploring the Louisiana Purchase. Dr Goforth extracted 5 to 6 tons of fossilized bones at Big Bone Lick and began working them up the Ohio river, most likely via keelboats, to a Dr Richardson in Pittsburgh. His plan was to sell the bones to the American Philosophical Society or to Charles Willson Peale, who owned the first public museum in the United States and had a mastodon skeleton already on display.
However, when the bones arrived in Pittsburgh, the American Philosophical Society was focused on the Lewis and Clark Expedition, and they knew Lewis and Clark could be encouraged to return to Big Bone Lick after completing their expedition. This left Charles Willson Peale who was also connected to the American Philosophical Society and was reluctant to enter into negotiations that upstaged President Jefferson or the Society. And besides his collection already features a mastodon. Therefore, negotiations stalled for two years while the bones laid in Pittsburgh under the care of Dr. Richardson.
At the same time some say, and Irish born writer Thomas Ashe, was either residing in Washington DC and contributing to the National Intelligencer newspaper or getting thrown out of the British Army in Canada. It’s hard to say.
For Thomas Ashes’ writing quill had a very large, inflated imagination that sprinkled in a few facts, obtained from others, to create credibility. Sorting these small tidbits of truth from the embellishments is difficult.
Here's what really happened.
Somehow Thomas Ashe, learned about the bones in Pittsburgh, the stalled negotiations, and that Dr. Goforth lived in Cincinnati. From whom he collected this information we are unsure. However, this does place him in the company of individuals that knew the inner workings of the American Philosophical Society.
In late 1806, he took on the identity of a Frenchman. Now calling himself Arvil, instead of Ashe, he traveled to Cincinnati to meet with Dr. Goforth. He convinced Mr. Goforth that if others refused to pay the asking price, he had interested parties, in France, willing to pay top dollar for his collection. Of course, a contract would need to be fully executed and delivery would need to be made before payment was rendered. Documents were prepared and Thomas Ashe, now calling himself Arvil headed to Pittsburgh with documents in hand to obtain the release of the bones into his custody and care.
By 1807, there were about 50 keelboats, each weighing 30 tons, transporting goods between Cincinnati and Pittsburgh. They or smaller boats could have handled the load however payment would have been required. Thomas Ashe was known to always be broke and needing money. Therefore, we believe he sold part of the bones in Pittsburgh to finance his trip.
The collection was then loaded on a keelboat and floated to Louisville, where it would have been off loaded and transported via wagons around the falls and reloaded on a second keelboat for the trip to Memphis and on to New Orleans.
As Thomas Ash was making arrangements to transport Dr Goforth’s collection down the Ohio and the Mississippi Rivers, Thomas Jefferson was writing David Ross the owner of the land at Big Bone Lick and requesting permission to perform another archaeological dig at the site. Later in December of 1807 Jefferson wrote to William Clark thanking him for his efforts to obtain the bones and requesting they be shipped by way of New Orleans. This means the keelboat carrying Mr. Goforth’s now stolen bones and Mr. Ashe passed within two miles of Clark and his dig site at Big Bone Lick.
When Thomas Ashe arrived at New Orleans, he made another attempt to sell the bones but complained the offer was too low, insulting, and 1/10th of the true value. So, he decided to set sail for England. This trip likely included stops in Cuba and ports on the eastern coast of the United Stated and would then take on supplies and cross the Atlantic to London.
After about 65 days after leaving Cuba, Thomas Ashe arrived in England where karma or equally devious characters awaited him. When the cargo was offloaded the customhouse officials sieved the bones and demanded that Mr. Ashe place a value on the bones of which a 35% import tariff would be charged. If he placed a low value on the bones, the customhouse had the right to seize the bones and pay him his quoted estimate plus 10%. Thomas Ashe was about to meet his match. Enter William Bullock of Liverpool, the founder and operator of the Museum of Natural Curiosities at 24 Lord Street.
In this pitiable and condemned state, I consigned the whole of my stupendous collection of organic remains to a Mr. Bullock of the Liverpool Museum, for the miserable and contemptible sum of two hundred pounds, he engaging to extricate me from the Custom-house, by depositing the sum of five hundred pounds, and paying the thirty-five percent on a sum to be named by arbitration, after the bill of view was carried into official effect. Reader, such was the issue of the most extraordinary and interested speculation that was ever undertaken by man. It made the fortune of Mr. Bullock, an entire stranger to me and to the design, and it left me a wretch in a state of mental darkness.
However, Mr. Bullock was not done with the Irishman pretending to be a Frenchman or the thief pretending to be a collector. He demanded that Mr. Ashe write a chronological detailed account on how he collected the bones, in which Mr. Ashe did by plagiarizing Dr Goforth and once again allowing his imagination to run wild. Mr. Bullock now had written documentation from whom and how he obtained the bones, he was now free to display the bones. He sold Mr Ashes’ written false account at the Liverpool Museum and later in the newly built Piccadilly Egyptian Hall opened in 1812.
Mr. Ashe continued to write several articles and books and in 1808 released a book titled “Travels in America in 1806”, the critic in the London Quarterly Review wrote: ‘He has spoiled a good book by engrafting incredible stories on authentic facts.’ He died broke on December 17, 1835 in Bath
To our knowledge Thomas Ashe or Arvil never communicated with Dr Goforth after he left Cincinnati. In a letter to Thomas Jefferson, Dr Goforth detailed the missing bones and the lack of communication regarding their location and circumstances.
In 1807, Goforth also rode a flatboat down the Ohio River and Mississippi River to Louisiana. There he became a Parish judge In 1812, he was elected a delegate from Iberville Parish to the convention to write the constitution for the state. He removed to New Orleans, where he was a surgeon for a regiment of volunteers during invasion of the city by the British during the War of 1812. He decided to return to Cincinnati in 1816, and reached the city on December 28, 1816. He died May 12, 1817, in Cincinnati from hepatitis he had contracted on his river voyage the previous year.
In 1819 William Bullock sold 32,000 items of his museum collection at auction. He took the proceeds, left England, and Purchased Elmwood Hall and 1000 acres, in what is now known as Ludlow, Kentucky. Which is 36 miles from Big Bone Lick. He made several visits to Big Bone Lick during his stay in America. Bullock sold the estate in 1830 to Israel Ludlow, son of one of Cincinnati’s founders, and returned to England. Elmwood Hall still stands today.