History

Dinosaur Valley State Park, located just northwest of Glen Rose in Somervell County

Somervell County, Texas

There were 2,438 households out of which 37.40% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 61.70% were married couples living together, 9.60% had a female householder with no husband present, and 24.50% were non-families. 21.30% of all households were made up of individuals and 9.20% had...

, is a 1524.72 acres (617 ha) scenic park set astride the Paluxy River

Paluxy River

The Paluxy River is a river in the U.S. state of Texas. It is a tributary of the Brazos River. It is formed by the convergence of the North Paluxy River and the South Paluxy River near Bluff Dale, Texas in Erath County and flows a distance of before joining the Brazos just to the east of Glen...

. The land for the park was acquired from private owners under the State Parks Bonds Program during 1968 and opened to the public in 1972. In addition to being a state park, it is also a National Natural Landmark

National Natural Landmark

The National Natural Landmark program recognizes and encourages the conservation of outstanding examples of the natural history of the United States. It is the only natural areas program of national scope that identifies and recognizes the best examples of biological and geological features in...

.

Eastward-dipping limestone

Limestone

Limestone is a sedimentary rock composed largely of the minerals calcite and aragonite, which are different crystal forms of calcium carbonate . Many limestones are composed from skeletal fragments of marine organisms such as coral or foraminifera....

s, sandstone

Sandstone

Sandstone is a sedimentary rock composed mainly of sand-sized minerals or rock grains.Most sandstone is composed of quartz and/or feldspar because these are the most common minerals in the Earth's crust. Like sand, sandstone may be any colour, but the most common colours are tan, brown, yellow,...

s, and mudstone

Mudstone

Mudstone is a fine grained sedimentary rock whose original constituents were clays or muds. Grain size is up to 0.0625 mm with individual grains too small to be distinguished without a microscope. With increased pressure over time the platey clay minerals may become aligned, with the...

s of the Glen Rose Formation

Glen Rose Formation

The Glen Rose Formation is a shallow marine to shoreline geological formation from the lower Cretaceous period exposed over a large area from South Central to North Central Texas...

 were deposited during the early Cretaceous

Cretaceous

The Cretaceous , derived from the Latin "creta" , usually abbreviated K for its German translation Kreide , is a geologic period and system from circa to million years ago. In the geologic timescale, the Cretaceous follows the Jurassic period and is followed by the Paleogene period of the...

 Period approximately 113 million years ago along the shorelines of an ancient sea, and form the geological setting for the park area. Over the last million years or so, these layered formations have been eroded

Erosion

Erosion is when materials are removed from the surface and changed into something else. It only works by hydraulic actions and transport of solids in the natural environment, and leads to the deposition of these materials elsewhere...

, dissected and sculpted by the Paluxy River which, in many places, has cut down to resistant beds and planed off sizable exposures of rock in the river bottom.

Controversy

Outside, but near the Dinosaur Valley State Park, in the limestone deposits along the Paluxy River

Paluxy River

The Paluxy River is a river in the U.S. state of Texas. It is a tributary of the Brazos River. It is formed by the convergence of the North Paluxy River and the South Paluxy River near Bluff Dale, Texas in Erath County and flows a distance of before joining the Brazos just to the east of Glen...

 "twin sets" tracks were found in the Glen Rose Formation as early as 1908. These footprints have been cited by young-Earth creationists

Young Earth creationism

Young Earth creationism is the religious belief that Heavens, Earth, and all life on Earth were created by direct acts of the Abrahamic God during a relatively short period, sometime between 5,700 and 10,000 years ago...

 as evidence against evolutionary theory, as the idea that humans and dinosaurs lived at the same time is contrary to the standard view of the geological time scale. This view is the basis for displays at the Creation Evidence Museum

Creation Evidence Museum

The Creation Evidence Museum, originally Creation Evidences Museum, is a museum in Glen Rose in Somervell County in central Texas, USA. Founded in 1984 by Carl Baugh for the purpose of researching and displaying purported evidence for creationism, the museum purports to show that the Earth is only...

 in nearby Glen Rose. However, as biologist Massimo Pigliucci

Massimo Pigliucci

Massimo Pigliucci is the chair of the Department of Philosophy at CUNY-Lehman College. He is also the editor in chief for the journal . He is known as an outspoken critic of creationism and advocate of science education.-Biography:...

 noted, geologists in the 1980s "clearly demonstrated that no human being left those prints," but rather "they were in fact metatarsal dinosaur tracks, together with a few pure and simple fakes."

The family of the original man, George Adams, who made the claims, later admitted it was a hoax. "My grandfather was a very good sculptor," said Zana Douglas, from the Adams family who found many of Glen Rose’s real dinosaur tracks. She explained that in the 1930s and the Depression, Glen Rose residents made money by making moonshine

Moonshine

Moonshine is an illegally produced distilled beverage...

 and selling dinosaur fossils. The fossils brought $15 to $30 and when the supply ran low, George Adams, Zana's grandfather "just carved more, some with human footprints thrown in."

External links

• Dinosaur Valley State Park - official site
• A guide to the state park by Glen J. Kuban.
• The Texas Dinosaur/"Man Track" Controversy by Glen J. Kuban from talk.origins
  Talk.origins
  talk.origins is a moderated Usenet discussion forum concerning the origins of life, and evolution...