A natural weathering phenomenon on a glacial erratic lying adjacent to U.S. Route 40 near Gettysburg, Preble Co., Ohio, is described and illustrated.  It is not an artificial Native American or Historic rock carving

Murphy, James L., 1941-

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PREBLE COUNTYIS FOOT PRINT ROCK In the early 1980s a scribbled note sur-faced in the county files of the Ohio His-torical Society's Department of Archae-ology indicating simply that there was a rock near Gettysburg. , Preble County, Ohio, with a human footprint on it. Gettys-burg is a small crossroads community on Route 40, the old National Road, but with-out any more detailed locality information I deferred looking for this Footprint Rock for quite some time, even though the note suggested a previously unrecorded petro-glyph. Quite a few years later I was curious enough to leave Interstate 70 and drive through Gettysburg. About a half mile east of the village, I stopped at a gas sta-tion (no longer standing) and asked the attendant if he knew the location of the rock, and he pointed back to the road and told me, " It 's right there. " Walking back to the highway, I saw a brown and white sign that read "Foot Print Rock," (Figure 1) only a few feet in front of which was a large, flat metamorphic glacial erratic of foliated gneiss with a ropey surface that has been subjected to differential ero-sion . When viewed at the proper angle, pref-erably with half-closed eyes, one portion of the eroded surface does look some-thing like the impression of a human left foot (Figure 2). A closer look at a different angle (Figure 3) dispels the illusion and shows that the feature is a freak of na-ture, formed by a combination of natural erosion and human imagination. The min-iature pothole measures about 4 by 10 inches and vaguely resembles the outline of a human foot but clearly was carved by nature. In May, 2001, HRG Consultants, Inc. , completed an Outline of Draft Man-agement Strategies for the Ohio Nation-al Road National Scenic Byway. This is available on the Ohio Historical Societies website . Among their Strategies for His-toric and Archaeological Resources (p. 13) is: 5. Conduct further research on the signifi-cance of Footprint Rock in eastern Jeffer-son TownShip, Preble County. Figure 1 (Murphy): Rock and marker along Old Route 40, looking west toward Gettysburg, Preble Co., Ohio. by James L. Murphy Emeritus Professor Ohio State University Libraries Columbus, OH 43210 It is not known whether any such "fur-ther research" has been conducted, but it should not take more than a brief visit to establish the fact that Foot Print Rock is neither historic nor archaeological. This seems to be generally recognized, for an e-mail on American Road Magazine's on-line forum refers to the site as a "short, sweet, and slightly silly stop," which pretty much sums it up. There is also a "fair but balanced ," not to mention entertaining, account of this geological joke on the Roadside America website (Shull 2007). References American Road Forum 2008 July 25, 2008, e-mail from "Road Scholar," available at http://americanroadmagazine.com/ foirum/index.php?showtopic=915 10 HRG Consultants 2001 Outline of Draft Management Strategies for the Ohio National Road National Scenic Byway. Available online at the Ohio Historical Society's website Shull , Charles 2007, Gettysburg, Ohio-Footprint Rock. "Roadside" America website available at: http://www.roadsideam erica.com/tip/16588 Figure 2 (Murphy): Footprint, looking east. Note shadow from historic marker: Photo ca. 1990. 11 Figure 3 (Murphy): Recent close-up of rock showing erosional origin. Looking south. 

Preble County's Foot Print Rock

https://kb.osu.edu/bitstream/1811/56814/1/OHIO_ARCHAEOLOGIST_V60N2_10.pdf

Preble County's Foot Print Rock

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