Petroglyphs Representing the Imprint of the Human Foot (January 1, 1913)

8/12/2019 Petroglyphs Representing the Imprint of the Human Foot (January 1, 1913)

1/10

"#$%& '()$*#% +(*,-*, (* './012 3$-- ,( 4*&(*- 5* ,6- 7($%8

/659 #$,5:%- 59 (*- (; *-#$%& ($?9 85@5,5A-8 #*8 B#8- ;$--%& #C#5%#D%- ,( -C-$&(*- 5*

,6- >($%8 D& './01E

F*(>* #9 ,6- "#$%& '()$*#% +(*,-*,2 ,659 9-, (; >($?9 5*:%)8- $-9-#$:6 #$,5:%-92 *->92 %-,,-$92 #*8 (,6-$

>$5,5*@9 G)D%596-8 5* B($- ,6#* H== (; ,6- (%8-9, %-#85*@ #:#8-B5: I()$*#%9E /6- >($?9 8#,- ;$(B ,6-

B58J9-C-*,--*,6 ,( ,6- -#$%& ,>-*,5-,6 :-*,)$5-9E

7- -*:()$#@- G-(G%- ,( $-#8 #*8 96#$- ,6- "#$%& '()$*#% +(*,-*, (G-*%& #*8 ,( ,-%% (,6-$9 ,6#, ,659

$-9()$:- -K59,9E L-(G%- B#& G(9, ,659 :(*,-*, (*%5*- ($ $-859,$5D),- 5* #*& >#& ;($ *(*J:(BB-$:5#%

G)$G(9-9E

1-#8 B($- #D(), "#$%& '()$*#% +(*,-*, #, 6,,GMNN#D(),EI9,($E($@NG#$,5:5G#,-JI9,($N5*85C58)#%9N-#$%&J

I()$*#%J:(*,-*,E

'./01 59 # 85@5,#% %5D$#$& (; #:#8-B5: I()$*#%92 D((?92 #*8 G$5B#$& 9()$:- (DI-:,9E './01 6-%G9 G-(G%-

859:(C-$2 )9-2 #*8 D)5%8 )G(* # >58- $#*@- (; :(*,-*, ,6$()@6 # G(>-$;)% $-9-#$:6 #*8 ,-#:65*@

G%#,;($B2 #*8 G$-9-$C-9 ,659 :(*,-*, ;($ ;),)$- @-*-$#,5(*9E './01 59 G#$, (; O/P4F42 # *(,J;($JG$(;5,($@#*5A#,5(* ,6#, #%9( 5*:%)8-9 O,6#?# .Q1 #*8 L($,5:(E 3($ B($- 5*;($B#,5(* #D(), './012 G%-#9-

:(*,#:, 9)GG($,RI9,($E($@E


2/10

PETROGLYPHS REPRESENTING THE IMPRINT OF THEHUMAN FOOTBY DAVID I. BUSHNELL,JR

PETROGLYPHS representing various signs and symbols,birds and other animals, and the footprints of birds, beasts,and human beings, are met with throughout America. Ofthese, the last type is one of the most interesting, and it is for thepurpose of showing their wide distribution that the present articlehas been prepared.

Footprints are usually found near water-courses. The bestexamples are isolated, dissociated from other figures. Again theyare mingled with a group of carvings. But the first class appearsto constitute a distinct type. These curious figures have beentraced from below the falls of James river, near Richmond, acrossthe mountains and down the valley of the Ohio to the Mississippi.Crossing the Mississippi, they are found in Missouri and Oklahoma.Other examples have been discovered near the upper waters of theMissouri and the Mississippi.

By the Falls of James River upon Colonel Byrd's Land, there lyesa Rock which I have seen, about a Mile from the River, wherein arefairly imprest several Marks like the Footsteps of a gigantick Man,each Step beingabout five Foot asunder:These they aver to be the Trackof their God. 'This was written before the year 1705, and it is of additionalinterest to know that the pictographs were still recognized andfaintly visible a century and a half later.2Two or more similar figures are known to be on the surface ofa rock in the North fork of the Rivanna, about five miles northeastof the University of Virginia; however, they have not been seenfor a long period, and now rest beneath a deposit of sand and gravel.Several persons living in the vicinity remember having seen them

1 Beverley, Robert, The History of Virginia, London, 1722, p. 182.2 Howison, R. R., History of Virginia, Richmond, 1848, vol. I, p. III.8


3/10

BUSHNELL] PETROGLYPHS OF THE HUMAN FOOT 9during a period of low water many years ago. This point is withinthree miles of the site of the mound opened and described byThomas Jefferson just before the Revolution.An interesting group of petroglyphs existed, and may yet exist,about two miles south of Brasstown, Clay county, North Carolina,in the extreme southwestern corner of the state. They were thusdescribed in a letter written by Silas Dinsmore to Governor Blount,dated Oostinahli, January 2, 1796:

On my returnfrom South Carolina,I paid a visit to the EnchantedMountain, about two miles south of Brasstown,on the borders of Ten-nessee, to examine the much famed curiosities on the rocks, and waspleased to find that reportso happily coincided with reality. There areon several rocks a number of impressions resembling the tracks ofturkies, bears, horses, and human beings, as visible and perfect as theycould be made on snow or sand. The latter are remarkablefor havinguniformly six toes each, only one excepted. ... One of these trackswas very large, the length of the foot 16 inches, the distance of theextremes of the outer toes 13 inches, the proximatebreadth behind thetoes seven inches, the diameter of the heel-ball five. . . . Some of theCherokees entertain an opinion that it always rains when any personvisits the place. '

If it be true that certain figures of this group were intended torepresent the imprint of horses' feet, it is of great importance.As horses were unknown to the Indians until the coming of Euro-peans, the carvings must necessarily have been made since theadvent of the Spaniards. The route followed by DeSoto, duringthe months of May and June, 1540, passed within a few miles ofthis spot, and it is a well known fact that the Indians were awed bythe unknown and wonderful beasts, the horses, belonging to theexpedition. It would therefore be characteristic of the people toportray the tracks of these strange creatures. The horse-tracksrepresented on the rock appear to have been enlarged in proportionto the size of the figure of the human footprint, the dimensionsgiven being 8 by io inches.

Petroglyphs of like character are met with along the banks ofthe Ohio, and it is probable that many exist of which no account isobtainable.1Morse, Jedidiah, The American Universal Geography,Boston, 1802, p. 672.


4/10

IO AMERICAN ANTHROPOLOGIST [N. S., 15, 1913' Foot-print rocks,' so called, are at the foot of the bluff, atthe edge of the low river bottom just south of the Ohio, in Union

county, Kentucky. At this point the road leads to the Shawnee-town ferry. This is a mass of sandstone which rises above thesurface at an angle of 240, and upon the surface are various carvingsrepresenting the foot prints of men, of birds, and of quadrupeds. 'Several examples of footprints occur on the surface of amass of red sandstone about three miles northeast of Wickliffe,Ballard county, Kentucky, at a point near the mouth of the Ohio.One is said to measure 12 inches in length, another 8 inches.Similar carvings have been discovered at different localities inOhio. Near the town of Barnesville, Belmont county, two groupswere found, each covering a space of several square feet. Amongthe various figures represented were examples of the human foot-print, some large, others small.2 Isolated specimens may occur.Other groups, including similar figures, are mentioned as existingnear Independence, Cuyahoga county; near Amherst, Loraincounty; Wellsville, Columbina county; and on the surface of asandstone rock, lying on the banks of the Muskingum River. '

On the left bank of Illinois river, below the town of Naples,in Scott county, was a rock-shelter that evidently had been fre-quented by Indians during comparatively recent times. At oneplace within this shelter a group of petroglyphs had been carvedupon the surface of the stone. These represented the tracks ofbirds, signs or symbols of various sorts, and the imprint of thehuman foot.' These represented the foot as having six toes, andsuggest the figures on the rocks near Enchanted mountain, abovealluded to.

1 Cox, E. T., in SeventhAnnual Report of the Geological Survey of Indiana, 1875,p. 29.2Ward, James W., Sculptured Rocks, Belmont County, Ohio, in Journal of theAnthropologicalInstitute of New York,vol. I, 1871-1872, pp. 57-64.S'Whittlesey,Charles, Ancient Earth Forts of theCuyahogaValley, Ohio, Cleveland,1871, p. 28.4Mallery, Garrick, Pictographs of the North American Indians, in FourthAnnual

Reportof the Bureau of Ethnology, Washington, I886, pp. 21-22.5 Henderson, J. G., Aboriginal Remains near Naples, Illinois, in SmithsonianReportfor 1882, p. 719.


5/10

BUSHNELL] PETROGLYPHS OF THE HUMAN FOOT I I

Two caves, or, as they should probably be described, rock-shelters, in Monroe county, Illinois, not far from the Mississippi,contained similar carvings. These were described by ProfessorRau in a communication to the American Ethnological Societyof New York, and the account was printed in the Bulletin of thatSociety for October, 1861. One of these is described as havingshown a square heel and the toes of equal length, and terminatingin a line. In the same county, near the town of Waterloo, is acave, on the bottom of which are three or four footprints havingthe toes spread in a marked manner. In this respect they differfrom the majority of the known examples.'Like carvings, similarly placed on the bottom of a cave, havebeen found near Saline river, in Ste Genevieve county, Missouri,a few miles west of the Mississippi, and just south of Monroecounty, Illinois. At a meeting of the American EthnologicalSociety, held during January, 1861, E. G. Squier read extractsfrom the St. GenevieveCounty Plaindealer, (Mo.,) of a recent date.The article was in part as follows:

Higher up on the Saline is a cavern. . . . Entering the mouth ofthe cave a short distance, we discoveredfoot-prints of a pappoosejustcommencingto walk. There are three distinct marks. The child waswalking, and the first step was with its right foot, the next with itsleft, then again came the right. There is nearby a very large foot-printof a man. Turkey-tracksand several other very singularthings can beseen very distinctly. There is also the outline of an eagle cut into therock. The work is neatly executed. 2

Numerous examples of the form of petroglyphs under consider-ation were formerly to be met with along the bluffs of Jeffersoncounty, Missouri, and northward on the river bank near and withinthe city of St Louis. Three depressions in a mass of red sandstone,near Herculaneum, were pointed out by an old inhabitant, whodescribed them as once having been very distinct representationsof human footprints. The stone is at the side of a road, and thesurface has been greatly washed and worn away. Referring to theupper stratum of limestone in the vicinity of Herculaneum, School-

1 Mentioned in a personal letter from Dr F. A. Glasgow, of St Louis.2Bulletin of the American Ethnological Society, vol. I, New York, 1861, pp. 49-50.


6/10

12 AMERICAN ANTHROPOLOGIST [N. S., 15, 1913

craft wrote: The supposed prints of human feet, at this place, nowpreserved in, the outer chimney-wall of Mr Honey, were originallyquarried from this stratum, as well as the more striking impressionsformerly to be seen at St Louis. 'A rather small footprint was discovered near Kimmswick,Jefferson county, Missouri. It was cut in the upper exposedsurface of the limestone cliff shown at the extreme right in plateI, a. The block of stone, as removed, is represented in b. Thiswas obtained by the writer and presented to the Peabody Museumof Harvard University. The petroglyph represents the impressionof the left foot; its extreme length is 7 inches; spread of toes, 334inches. At the foot of the cliff was a saline spring, and within thedistance of a hundred yards were several groups of stone gravesand an important village site.2 Rock creek, flowing past thevillage site, entered the Mississippi about two miles beyond. Sev-eral hundred feet below the mouth of the creek, on the immediatebank of the Mississippi, were two very clearly defined foot-prints. They were examined during the summer of 1901, butwithin the following year they were removed, by whom it wasnot possible to learn. One represented the impression of the entirefoot; the second, which followed the first, represented a part ofthe foot, including the toes. The distance between the toes ofthe two figures was about 18 inches. The length of the full examplewas about IoQ2 inches. Both figures represented impressions ofthe right foot, and were directed northward.The members of Long's expedition, while in St Louis duringthe early part of June, 1819, had occasion to examine certain

footprints.The horizontal strata of limestone which underlay the town ofSaint Louis and the surrounding country, have strongly attracted theattention of the curious, on account of having been found in one or two

instances, to contain distinct impressions of the human foot. There isnow in the possession of Mr. Rapp, of the Society of the Harmonites, a

1Schoolcraft, Henry R., Travels in the Central Portions of the Mississippi Valley,New York, 1825, P. 273.2 Bushnell, D. I., Jr., Primitive Salt-Making in the Mississippi Valley, pt; I, Man,London, 1907, 13; pt. II, ibid., 19o8, 35.


7/10

AMERICAN ANTHROPOLOGIST N. S., VOL. 15, PL.

...... .. . . .. ....... .......

k-4-41?-_ir:

a. LIMESTONE CLIFF NEAR KIMMSWICK, JEFFERSON COUNTY, MISSOURI. THE WHITE STAKE IN-DICATES THE ORIGINAL POSITION OF THE FOOTPRINT

.. .... .......W m g w m-2N.?... .....v , - s -RAW,- W,U, . . . . . . .mt KneI F ,A tr QshN' x,

?51utll-,F- DO, V. AMmkiv3A.MLI A:X, IA. I WOUQ-?4AMA Owl, a,.5:0,.vQMw. 1:0.,1 V,I.RvWwb. FOOTPRINT FROM THE SUMMIT OF THE CLIFF SHOWN IN THE ABOVE FIGURE


8/10

BUSHNELL] PETROGLYPHS OF THE HUMAN FOOT 13stone, which has upon its surface, marks that appear to have beenformed by the naked feet of some human being, who was standing uponit while in a plastic state; also an irregular line, apparently traced by astick or wand, held in the hand of the same person. This stone wastaken from the slope of the immediate bank of the Mississippi belowthe range of the periodical floods. 1

This stone was taken by its owner to Indiana, and two yearslater Schoolcraft wrote:

Before leaving Harmony, our attention was particularly directedto a tabular mass of limestone, containing two apparent prints or im-pressions of the naked human foot. ' This stone was carefully preserved

W i m R - MA 7 A l l Ih

ISOlt:'All rw NMI.-

4%low,

FIG.6.-Block of limestone bearing petroglyphs, removed from St Louis, Mo.,to Harmony, Ind. (After Schoolcraft.)in an open area, upon the premises of Mr. Rappe, by whom it hadpreviously been conveyed from the banks of the Mississippi, at St.Louis. 2

Schoolcraft's illustration of this example is shown in figure 6.Some very interesting examples of footprints were found byDr William Jones near Salt creek, in the Seminole Nation, Okla-

homa, and were later removed to the American Museum of Natural1James, Edwin, Account of an Expedition ... under the Command of Major

Stephen H. Long, Philadelphia, 1823, vol. I, pp. 56-57.2 Schoolcraft, op. cit., pp. 173-179.


9/10

14 AMERICAN ANTHROPOLOGIST [N. S., 15, 1913

History, New York City. The largest of the five carvings wasslightly less than 12 inches in length, and was 5 inches in width;the smallest was a little more than 8 inches in length and 3 inchesin width. The greatest depth was one-quarter inch. Three figuresrepresent the impressions of the right foot, two the impressions ofthe left foot. The ridges separating the toes are clearly andsharply defined. The material is sandstone.

Specimens in the National Museum were described some yearsago as follows:

On two of these slabs, which have been completely cut out of therock, may be seen, respectively, two impressionsof feet representedasbeing covered with moccasins of a pattern still in use among the Siouxand other western tribes. The slabs consist of sandstone . . .and wereobtained from the banks of the MissouriRiver. [The third example]is a flattish block of quartzite (probably a boulder), which bears onone of its flat sides the impressionof a naked foot, each toe being dis-tinctly marked by a cavity of proportionatedepth. The foot is sur-roundedby a numberof cup-shapeddepressions. This relic was obtainedin GasconadeCounty, Missouri. 'An oval mass of sandstone, bearing the representations of the

imprints of two feet, one right, the other left, and both wearingmoccasins, was found some years ago near the Gasconade river,in the southern part of Missouri. This specimen is now in thecollection of the Missouri Historical Society.Footprints have also been discovered on a limestone bowlder,on the banks of the upper Missouri, near Forest City, Potter county,South Dakota.2

A group of carvings evidently intended to represent human handsand feet was discovered on an exposed ledge of sandstone nearTrempeleau, Wisconsin.3 These are merely outlines, and in this1Rau, Charles, The Archaeological Collections of the United States NationalMuseum, Smithsonian Contributionsto Knowledge, pub. no. 287, Washington, 1876,p. 57.2 Thomas, Cyrus, Catalogue of Prehistoric Works East of the Rocky Mountains,Bulletin 12, Bureau of Ethnology, Washington, 1891, p. 198.3Lewis, T. H., Sculptured Rock at Trempeleau, Wisconsin, in AmericanNaturalist,September, 1889.


10/10

BUSHNELL] PETROGLYPHS OF THE HUMAN FOOT 15respect agree more closely with the petroglyphs found in theeastern section of the country. But it is a curious fact that foot-prints are often represented in intaglio when other figures of thegroup are in outline. Examples are found at Millsborough, Wash-ington county, Pennsylvania, on the banks of the Monongahela,and near Morgantown, Monongalia county, West Virginia.1 Theselatter are excellent examples of Algonquian petroglyphs.Various groups of carvings, in which the human footprint isrepresented, are met with in different parts of the country, occurringas far west as California, but the isolated footprints appear tobe confined to a more limited area. They are evidently in some wayassociated with water or water-courses, as all examples known tothe writer are, or have been, found near the bank of some stream.Similar petroglyphs undoubtedly exist along the bluffs borderingthe Ohio, the Mississippi, and other streams of lesser magnitude.The writer would be pleased to learn of all such specimens.

UNIVERSITY, VIRGINIA1 Mallery, Garrick, op. cit., pp. 224-226.

Documents

Petroglyphs Representing the Imprint of the Human Foot (January 1, 1913)