THE GLEN ROSE AND ANTELOPE SPRINGS TRACKS

Here is the remarkable story of ancient human tracks, which evolutionists would rather that you not know about. Evolutionary theory is a myth. God created everything; the evidence clearly points to it. Nothing else can explain the mountain of evidence. This is science vs. evolution—a Creation-Evolution Encyclopedia, brought to you by Creation Science Facts.

CONTENT: The Glen Rose and Antelope Springs Tracks

The Glen Rose Tracks: There are giant human tracks, in Texas, by dinosaur prints
The Antelope Springs Tracks: Sandaled footprints were found amid trilobites

This material is excerpted from the book, ANCIENT MAN.
An asterisk ( * ) by a name indicates that person is not known to be a creationist. Of over 4,000 quotations in the books this Encyclopedia is based on, only 164 statements are by creationists.
You will have a better understanding of the following statements by scientists if you will also read the web page, Ancient Man.

THE GLEN ROSE TRACKS

There are giant human tracks, in Texas, by dinosaur prints.

In a Cretaceous limestone formation near Glen Rose, Texas, are to be found some remarkable footprints. They are the tracks of giant men! You can go look at them for yourself. (But when you arrive, ask one of the old timers to tell you where to look. As soon as they are exposed, they gradually begin eroding away.)

Glen Rose is located in north central Texas, about 40 miles southwest of the Fort Worth-Dallas metropolitan area. The area has little rainfall; and, for several months each year the Paluxy River is completely dry. From time to time the river changes its course. This occurs at those times when the quiet river becomes a raging torrent. Because the river has such a steep slope (a drop of 17 feet [51.8 dm] per mile), it is the second swiftest river in Texas and quite dangerous in time of heavy rainfall.

It was after the terrible flood of 1908, when the river rose 27 feet [82.3 dm], that the prints began to be noticed. The new riverbed brought to view a flat rock bottom with animal and human prints in what was once wet mud which had turned to stone.

Clifford L. Burdick, a mining geologist, and *Roland T. Bird, a paleontologist with the American Museum of Natural History, carefully examined and reported on the footprints.

The present writer is over six feet [18.2 dm] tall and has a foot that is about 10½ inches [26.67 cm] in length. The Glen Rose tracks are 15 inches [38.1 cm] long, and were probably made by people 8.3 feet [25.38 dm] tall.

"Yes, they apparently are real enough. Real as the rock could be . . the strangest things of their kind I had ever seen. On the surface of each was displayed the near-likeness of a human foot, perfect in every detail. But each imprint was 15 inches long!"—*Roland T. Bird, "Thunder in His Footsteps," in Natural History, May 1939, p. 255.

(As mentioned later in this study, some of the human tracks are 21½ inches [54.6 cm] long—and thus would have been made by humans about 11.8 feet [25.38 dm] tall.)

During his research at the Paluxy Riverbed near Glen Rose, Bird found not only human footprints, but also by them trails of large three-toed carnivorous dinosaurs and the tracks of gigantic sauropods. Each print was 24 x 38 inches [60.9 x 96.5 cm] in size, 12 feet [36.57 dm] apart, and sunk deeply into the mud! Both man and dinosaur were apparently running.

In 1938, under Bird's supervision, a trail of Brontosaurus tracks were taken from the bed and shipped to the American Museum of Natural History in New York City. C.L. Burdick's findings were published in the spring 1957 issue of The Naturalist.

The so-called "Cretaceous Period" is the only time when the dinosaurs were supposed to have lived. It is said to have spanned 70 million years, dating from 135 million to 65 million years ago. Man is said to have appeared no earlier than 4 million years ago. The "Glen Rose formation," as it is known by geologists, is dated as "Early Cretaceous," or 120 million years ago.

This formation is described as limestone, alternating with clay, marl, and sand, and in various shades of brownish yellow and gray. Its thickness is 40 to 200 feet [121.9-602.6 dm]. Preservation of such tracks in limestone provides conclusive proof of rapid formation. As soon as the tracks were made, a layer of clay, sand, and gravel washed in and filled them so they would not dissolve away. Also, if the tracks were not quickly covered they would erode away. There is no room here for hundreds or millions of years. The prints were made and covered and preserved fast! It may well be that the prints were being covered by rising turbulent water which, after covering them with sediments, washed out temporarily as the earth may have moved up or down. It was time of geologic catastrophe on a massive scale.

Tracks are found in several of the layers of limestone, as they are exposed by river erosion. Man tracks have been found in layers BELOW that of the dinosaur prints! Fossils from land, seashore, and open sea have all been found here.

Human footprints are found above, with, and below prints of bears, saber-toothed tigers, mammoths, and dinosaurs.

Another striking evidence of the genuineness of these tracks is called "mud push-up." These footprints show "mud up-push" where the toes pushed up the mud in front and on the sides. This would not occur if these were "erosion Markings," as some evolutionists claim. Lamination markings, indicating that the foot pressed through different colored clays beneath it, are also to be seen on many of the human and animal tracks.

Over a hundred human footprint trails have been studied in the Paluxy River area. Most of the footprints are unshod, but some appear to have some kind of covering on the foot. Some marks are of children's feet, but always going somewhere with adults. Some are of giants. Each one will have length of strides to match the footprint size. Quite a few of the tracks are 16 inches [40.64 cm] in size, but several of the trails are of a man with a seven-foot [21.3 dm] stride and footprint of 21½ inch [54.6 cm] tracks by 11.94 foot [36.39 dm] tall people.

"An anthropological rule of thumb holds that the length of the foot represents about 15 percent of an individual's height."—*Mary D. Leakey, "Footprints in the Ashes of Time," National Geographic, April 1979, p. 453.

C.N. Dougherty, a local chiropractor in the Glen Rose area, wrote a book, Valley of the Giants, in 1967. He has located, described, and photographed many of the human prints.

THE ANTELOPE SPRINGS TRACKS

Sandaled footprints were found amid trilobites.

Trilobites are small marine creatures that are now extinct. Evolutionists tell us that trilobites are one of the most ancient creatures which have ever lived on Planet Earth, and they existed millions of years before there were human beings. William J. Meister, Sr., a drafting supervisor by trade (and, by the way, a non-Christian), made a hobby of searching for trilobite fossils in the mountains of Utah. On June 1, 1968, he found a human footprint, and there were trilobites in the same rock! The location was Antelope Springs, about 43 miles northwest of Delta, Utah.

Breaking off a large, two-inch thick piece of rock, he hit it on edge with a hammer, and it fell open in his hand. To his great astonishment, he found on one side the footprint of a human being, with trilobites right in the footprint itself! The other half of the rock slab showed an almost perfect mold of a footprint and fossils. Amazingly, the human was wearing a sandal!

The footprint measured 10¼ inches long by 3½ inches wide at the sole [26.035 x 8.89 cm], and 3 inches wide [7.62 cm] at the heel. The heel print was indented in the rock about an eighth of an inch [1.676 cm] more than the sole. It was clearly the right foot, because the sandal was well-worn on the right side of the heel. Several easily visible trilobites were in the footprint. It had stepped on them, pressing them underfoot.

No chance of hand-made "carvings" here, as the evolutionists charge at Glen Rose. The footprint was located halfway up a 2,000-foot mountain face, and Meister had to stop to rest many times as he climbed. Where he found the print, he had to make footholds to stand on, in order to search for trilobites.

Meister mentions that he told Burdick and Carlisle about the site. This is what happened next:

"The first week in August, Dr. Clifford Burdick, a well-traveled consulting geologist of Tucson, Arizona, visited the site of the discovery at Antelope Springs with Mr. Carlisle [a graduate geologist at the University of Colorado]. On this visit Dr. Burdick found a footprint of a barefoot child in the same location as my discovery. He showed my this footprint on August 18.

"The day before, my family and I had met Dr. Burdick at Antelope Springs. While there we found another sandal print. Dr. Burdick continued; and, on Monday, August 19, he informed me by letter that he had found a second child's footprint.

"In addition to my discovery and that of Dr. Burdick's, a friend of mine, George Silver, digging alone in this location, discovered more footprints of a human or human beings, also shod in sandals. His specimen, which he showed to me (I also showed this specimen to Dr. Melvin Clark), had two footprints, one about a half inch [2.54 cm] above and on top of the other.

"Finally Dean Bitter, teacher in the public schools of Salt Lake City, discovered other footprints of human beings wearing sandals much like those found by George Silver and me. Both Dr. Cook and I have seen his specimens found at Antelope Springs, some distance from the site of my discovery."—William J. Meister, Sr., "Discovery of Trilobite Fossils in Shod Footprint of Human in `Trilobite Beds'—A Cambrian Formation—Antelope Springs, Utah," in Why Not Creation? (1970), p. 190.

As a result of finding the footprints, Meister became a Christian.

*Leland Davis, a consulting geologist, analyzed the strata the footprints had been found in—and found them to be "consisting almost entirely of Cambrian strata"! This is the oldest regular fossil-bearing strata on the planet!

You can find a complete description of the Antelope Springs footprint discoveries in the book, Why Not Creation? pp. 185-193.

Similar giant human footprints have been found in Arizona, near Mount Whitney, in California; near White Sands, New Mexico; and other places.

FOR MORE INFORMATION:

To the next topic in this series:

THE STORY OF PILTDOWN MAN: Evolutionary history is full of frauds. Here is one of them.