Some photographs of indentations, and photographs of the plaster of paris casts of those indentations, which bear a striking resemblance to humanoid tracks were posted here on this site a few months ago. The indentations were reportedly found in the Ozark Mountains of Northwest Arkansas in sandstone (originally ocean beach sands) that geological science believes to be about 350 million old.
Because one of the indentations and its cast are very similar in size and shape to some photographs and casts of purported Bigfoot (Sasquatch) tracks that have been publicized, the Administrator of the South Alabama Bigfoot Research web site posted a note on a prominent Bigfoot forum about the photos and provided a link to them. They were posted simply as a matter of interest.
Since science has determined that no humanoid was present on earth when the ocean beach sands were exposed, many who viewed the photographs on the forum site were quick to point out as absolute fact in posts on the forums message board that the indentations were petroglyphs (rock carvings), and some posts clearly implied that for anyone to even consider the indentations to be anything else reflected gross ignorance.
The writer readily acknowledges pure ignorance in a multitude of the various fields of study, but I do know that anyone who bases their opinions on other people's opinion's (geological text books for instance) cannot legitimately state anything as fact or with absolute certainty. To do so is to reflect the apex of ignorance and arrogance.
Yes, laymen can be confused by evidence that may represent either scientific anomalies, petroglyphs or outright hoaxes, but apparently so can professionals in the field of earth sciences.
The following are excerpts from the Anomalies section (starting on Page 34) of the book Mysteries Of The Unexplained , published and copyrighted in 1982 by the Readers Digest Association.
"At the summit of Big Hill in the Cumberland Mountains in Jackson County, Kentucky, is a layer of carboniferous sandstone. In the 1880's it was crossed by a wagon trail that in time broke up the surface of the rock. When the resultant debris was cleared away, a series of tracks was discovered in this carboniferous layer about 300 million years old. There were imprints of bear, something resembling a large horse, and two "tracks of a human beings, good sized, toes well spread, and very distinctly marked." The prints were examined by Prof. J. F. Brown of Berea College, Kentucky. (The American Antiquarian, 7:39, January 1885)"
"In 1938 Dr. Wilbur Burroughs, head of the geology department of Berea College, Kentucky, announced that he had discovered 10 humanoid footprints in carboniferous sandstone on a farm belonging to Mr. O. Finnell in the hills in the northern part of Rockcastle County. The prints were 9-1/2 inches long and six inches across the toes; the length of the stride was 18 inches. No marks of a tail or forefoot were found. Photomicrographs and infrared photography revealed no sign of carving or artificial marking in or around the prints, and a microscopic count of sand grains indicated that material within the prints had been impacted. This would be the natural result of a print made by the pressure of a human foot but could in no way be duplicated by carving. The rock in which the prints were found was estimated to be some 250 million years old. In recent years the prints were destroyed by vandals. (Brad Steiger, Mysteries of Time and Space, pp. 6-7)"
"A carnival of horses, bears, turkeys, and a six-toed humans left its tracks in what is now solid rock near the headwaters of the Tennessee River, a few miles south of Braystown, North Carolina. According to Josiah Priest, a 19th century writer on antiquities, the strange human tracks included one of a gaint - 16 inches long, 13 inches wide at the toes, and 5 inches wide at the ball of the heel. (Josiah Priest, American Antiquities, p. 150)"
"A pair of human footprints once graced a slab of limestone on the west bank of the Mississippi River at St. Louis. In 1816 or 1817 the slab was quarried from its position and removed by a Mr. George Rappe to the village of Harmony (now New Harmony, Indiana.
The prints were 10-1/2 inches long and 4 inches wide at the toes, 6-1/4 inches apart at the heel, and 13-1/2 inches apart at the toes, reported Henry R. Schoolcraft,
the toes being very much spread, and the foot flattened in a manner that happens to those who have been habituated to go a great length of time without shoes. Notwithstanding this circumstance, the prints are strilingly natural, exhibiting evey muscular impression, and well of the heel and toes, with a precision and faithfullness to nature, which I have not been able to copy, with perfect exactness, in the present drawing ....
Every appearance will warrant the conclusion that these impressions were made at a time when the rock was soft enough to receive them by pressure, and that the marks of feet are natural and genuine.
In the geological scheme of things, this limestone hardened about 270 million years ago. Both the rock and the prints in it were said to show the same evidence of wear and aging. (The American Journal of Science and Arts, 1:5;223-31, 1822)"
"On the north slope of a boulder-strewn hill near the mouth of the Little Cheyenne River, South Dakota, lies a flat, dazzling white rock of magnesian limestone, which geologists say was laid down and hardened some 100 million years ago. On it are three prints of moccasined feet. In size they seem to be those of a woman or adolescent, and to judge from the length of the stride (4-1/2 and 5-1/2 feet) the person who made them was running. In one of the prints, moreover, the impression made by the heel is deeper than that made by the ball of the foot, again suggesting that whoever made them was running at some speed.
The depth of the prints varies from 1/2 inch to 1 inch. All three clearly show the the instep and faint toe marks, and all show the same degree of weathering as the unmarked surface of the rock. According to an interview obtained in 1882 with a Mr. Le Beau, who had lived in the area for 26 years, local Indians knew nothing of the orgin of the prints but viewed the stone as a "medicine rock." (William R. Corliss, Ancient Man: A Handbook of Puzzling Artifacts, p. 649)"
Following these entries in that book are discussions of several more examples of rocks containing tracks that should not have existed, including the famous Paluxy River tracks near Glen Rose, Texas. The report concerning the Paluxy tracks discusses other related evidence which contradicts the "fake" and "hoax" theories that mainline science has vigorously used to discredit the tracks. When and if science accepts and acknowledges any of the numerous such "humanoid track" anomalies found across the world, their long held and fiercely defended opinions as to the earth's geological sequences and/or mankind's history will need some tweeking.
So, if the reader is fortunate enough to find such "tracks in stone", do your own critical study of them and make up your own mind about their origin. Your opinions about the orgin of the "tracks" will be as good as those of some professionals. Then cover them with pine straw and continue looking for Bigfoot tracks.