In 1985 John Morris, then vice president of the Institute for Creation Research in California (now president of ICR), along with Paul Taylor and other representatives from Eden Films (formerly Films for Christ), met with me at the Paluxy tracksites to reevaluate their past claims regarding human and dinosaur tracks. At that time I showed them evidence from my years of extensive on-site research that the most celebrated "man tracks" at the Taylor Site were forms of partly infilled, metatarsal dinosaur tracks, and that other alleged human tracks were erosional markings and in a smaller number of cases, doctored or carved prints. By the end of these on site meetings, Morris and the FFC representatives indicated that they largely agreed with these assessments, and that they knew of no valid or convincing evidence of human tracks in the Paluxy Riverbed.

Within days after these meetings FFC stopped renting their "man track" promoting film Footprints in Stone. A few months later John Morris (1986) authored an ICR Impact article addressing his reevaluation of the tracks. Although Morris' article characterized the track evidence as "mysterious" and fostered some continued misconceptions about it (Kuban, 1986), he acknowledged that the "human" prints were in serious question, and recommended that creationists not use the Paluxy evidence as an argument against evolution. Shortly afterward ICR ceased selling Morris' book Tracking Those Incredible Dinosaurs, which had strongly encouraged the human track claims.

Curiously, however, for years afterward ICR continued to sell books promoting the human track claims, in contradiction to their own recommendation. This situation still has not been remedied. In August of 2006, almost 20 years after the Impact article mentioned above, I purchased from ICR copies of their popular books Scientific Creationism and The Genesis Flood. Both continue to advocate the human track interpretation of the Paluxy tracks, without any corrections or qualifications. Some creationists have suggested that this may be because ICR considers the books to be "classics" and thus does not want to alter them. However, this explanation does not seem credible, since both books have been revised a number of times since their publication. Moreover, even if ICR wanted to preserve the 1985 status of these books, an insert or other means of clarifying the status of the Paluxy tracks could be used.

If ICR is really concerned with truth, or even consistency with their own past statements, leaving the Paluxy "human track" promotions in these books seems difficult to understand. I urge ICR to correct this situation by revising or deleting the pertinent pages, or at least including a corrective addendum or insert.

References

Morris, Henry M., 2003 (23rd printing). Scientific Creationism, Master Books, Arkansas. (Originally published in 1974 by Master Books, the publishing arm of Institute for Creation Research).

Henry M. Morris and John C. Whitcomb. 2003 (44th Printing). The Genesis Flood: The Biblical Record and Its Scientific Implications . P & R Publishing, Phillipsburg, NJ, (Original edition published in 1961 by Institute for Creation Research).

Kuban, Glen J. 1986. Review of Impact Article 151. Origins Research, Spring Summer 1986, Vol. 9, No. 1.

Morris, John D. 1986. ICR's Acts/Facts/Impacts article 151 (Vol. 15, No. 1)