Just south of St. Louis, in Imperial, there is a place where you can walk the ground mastodons once roamed. Mastodon State Historic Site is celebrating its 50th year in 2026, and the Missouri Department of Natural Resources marked the milestone in September with a free museum day, live music and interpretive programs at the picnic area.
The site protects the Kimmswick Bone Bed, the famous deposit where scientists found the first solid evidence that humans and the American mastodon lived side by side in eastern North America. It is one of the most important Ice Age sites in the country, hidden in plain sight a short drive from the city.
Inside the museum, an interpretive video, ancient artifacts and fossils lead to the star of the show: an impressive full replica of a mastodon skeleton, the same one generations of Missouri schoolchildren have stood beneath in awe.
Outdoors, three trails wind through the grounds — one leads to the very spot where the bones and artifacts were uncovered — along with picnic sites, a shelter, a playground and a special-use area at 1050 Charles J. Becker Drive. The season is not over, either: the park’s Hunter’s Moon Hike is scheduled for tomorrow, October 26, with Toddler Thursday programs following on November 19 and December 17.
Photo: Kevin Saff / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 2.0)
