Like most people in this country who don’t live close enough to their neighbor to pass an egg to each other through a window. We often see a lot of wildlife here on what I like to call our “40 Back Achers”. We have our fair share of foxes, coyotes, rabbits, turkeys, and deer. But I was recently reminded of two things. One, that larger more dangerous wildlife once owned the land we now call home. And two, How we all need to, occasionally stop focusing on the small stuff and step back and see what’s right in front of us.

This reminder came in the form of a very large foot print embedded in a rock. I have passed this rock hundreds of times. And as a sensible clear thinking resident of Arkansas I usually look at it as I walk past. Not because there’s any real reason to look at a rock. We have billions of them here after all. But because the wise walker always looks down while perambulating the Arkansas woods and back country to avoid stepping on a snake . Which we have in abundance. And since a large flat glade rock offers a place with high visibility , clear of grass and brush. My brain and feet often unconsciously steer me to these small islands of relative security.

While I’m on the subject. Another lesson we learn very young here. Is that when walking around the woods. Always step on and never over. Never step over a log, rock, or other large obstacles. You never know when a fanged ,stinging, or biting beastie may be resting on the other side. Remember this when walking in anyone’s woods not just ours.

I once heard a story from a friend of mine who is a Cherokee priest. That when Hernando de Soto was exploring this region. He had asked a shaman from a local tribe. What they used to cure snakebites. He had lost several men to snakebite. They were killing every snake they could find, but it was a futile gesture. They were hopelessly outnumbered. The shaman shook his head and said they had nothing to cure snakebite. De Soto asked how many people die from snakes every year. He figured it must be hundreds. The shaman told him almost none. They rarely had anyone die from a snakebite. De Soto was astounded. He asked how this could possibly be. He’d lost many men. There were snakes everywhere. How could they not be getting bitten regularly. The Shaman told him. “Because we leave them alone. If we see a snake we go around it or go the other way. You rush in and try to kill it. That‘s why your men keep getting bitten.”. The moral of the story is of course, don’t pester the local wildlife.

You would not have wanted to pester the wildlife that left this foot print especially . You probably would have gotten a lot worse than poisoned. You probably would have been either snapped in half, ran through, stomped to death or any combination there of.

At first I didn’t realize I was looking at a footprint . I thought that the rock had some unusual erosion patterns .to be sure. But I was looking at each individual marking in the rock. It wasn’t until, in a state of apparent clear headedness. That I happened to see the whole print for what it was. I seen finally ,

after walking by and stepping on this rock for years, ‘ the big picture’.

I was astounded to say the least. It was enormous. The largest ‘toe’ was just over a foot long. The smallest, just under. The whole print was five to six feet across. I figured whatever left it must have been huge.

Dinosaur immediately jumped to mind. I knew it probably was prehistoric since it was in rock. Rock that was once most likely clay, since we also have that in abundance in this region. Although a dinosaur was my first impulse. Logically I realized that there were other very large mammals that used to inhabit the earth. The giant sloth for example.. I snapped a few pictures and went to work studying feet..

I’ll save the reader the boredom of my listing every animal whose foot I looked at and jump right to the chase. To the best of my ability as an untrained paleontologist . And indeed as someone who had little interest in paleontology before this. The print, if it is a footprint. Belongs to a triceratops. Their remains have been found in Oklahoma which places them in the region. They have the correctly shaped foot , and there appears to be another partial print obliterated under the other which would indicate a four legged walker.

I gathered up what I could and decided to contact an actual Paleontologist to see if they had any interest in either confirming or debunking this. I contacted every university which teaches paleontology. That I could find on the net. I even went to the "ask a paleontologist" web sites and left emails there. The end result?

No one answers their emails and/or gives a damn. So much for the curiosity of modern science.

So I leave it to you. The pictures are here and on my facebook account. Take a look and you decide what it is your looking at. If you want to research them yourself. Be my guest. Hopefully someone else will see these prints with the same wide eyes as I did.

And remember. Take the time to step back and look at the big picture now and again. You may be surprised at what wonders there are to see in front of you. Wonders that were always there but, that you never noticed before.