Mastodon State Historic Site
Archaeological · Imperial, Missouri
A 431-acre site south of St. Louis preserving the Kimmswick Bone Bed, where mastodon bones were first found in the early nineteenth century and where, in 1979, archaeologists excavated a Clovis stone spear point lying in direct association with mastodon remains. That was the first solid evidence anywhere that people and these animals had lived at the same time - a question that had been argued over for a century and a half. The museum holds a full-size mastodon skeleton replica and the story of the dig; the bone bed itself is a field with a marker.
1050 Wildflower Trail, Imperial, Missouri, 63052, United States
The grounds and trails are FREE and open daily, generally dawn to dusk. THE MUSEUM IS TICKETED AND KEEPS SHORTER HOURS, typically daytime with reduced days outside summer and closure on some public holidays - and the museum is where the interpretation is, so check before travelling. The Kimmswick Bone Bed itself is an excavation site rather than a display; what you see there is the ground, not the bones.
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