Paluxy River - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

The Paluxy River is a river in the U.S. state

U.S. state

A U.S. state is any one of the 50 federated states of the United States of America that share sovereignty with the federal government. Because of this shared sovereignty, an American is a citizen both of the federal entity and of his or her state of domicile. Four states use the official title of...

of Texas

Texas

Texas is the second largest U.S. state by both area and population, and the largest state by area in the contiguous United States.The name, based on the Caddo word "Tejas" meaning "friends" or "allies", was applied by the Spanish to the Caddo themselves and to the region of their settlement in...

. It is a tributary of the Brazos River

Brazos River

The Brazos River, called the Rio de los Brazos de Dios by early Spanish explorers , is the longest river in Texas and the 11th longest river in the United States at from its source at the head of Blackwater Draw, Curry County, New Mexico to its mouth at the Gulf of Mexico with a drainage...

. It is formed by the convergence of the North Paluxy River and the South Paluxy River near Bluff Dale, Texas

Bluff Dale, Texas

Bluff Dale is an unincorporated community in Erath County, Texas, United States.The Bluff Dale Independent School District serves area students.- History :BLUFF DALE, Texas is on U.S. Highway 377 and the North Paluxy River in northeastern Erath County...

in Erath County

Erath County, Texas

Erath County is a county located on the Edwards Plateau in the U.S. state of Texas. In 2000, its population was 33,001. It is named for George Bernard Erath, an early surveyor and a soldier at the Battle of San Jacinto. The seat of the county is Stephenville....

and flows a distance of 29 miles (46.7 km) before joining the Brazos just to the east of Glen Rose, Texas

Glen Rose, Texas

Glen Rose is a city in Somervell County, Texas, United States. It is the county seat of Somervell County. As of the 2010 census, the city population was 2,444. Glen Rose is part of the Granbury micropolitan area.-19th century:...

in south central 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...

.

It is best known for numerous dinosaur

Dinosaur

Dinosaurs are a diverse group of animals of the clade and superorder Dinosauria. They were the dominant terrestrial vertebrates for over 160 million years, from the late Triassic period until the end of the Cretaceous , when the Cretaceous–Paleogene extinction event led to the extinction of...

footprints found in its bed near Glen Rose at the Dinosaur Valley State Park

Dinosaur Valley State Park

- History :Dinosaur Valley State Park, located just northwest of Glen Rose in Somervell County, is a scenic park set astride the Paluxy River. 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...

. The Paluxy River became famous for controversy in the early 1930s when locals found dinosaur and supposed human footprints in the same rock layer in 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...

, which were widely publicized as evidence against the geological time scale and in favor of young-Earth creationism. However, these anachronistic

Anachronism

An anachronism—from the Greek ανά and χρόνος — is an inconsistency in some chronological arrangement, especially a chronological misplacing of persons, events, objects, or customs in regard to each other...

"human" footprints have been determined to be mistaken interpretation and even some outright 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 were bought for $15 to $30 and when the supply ran low, George Adams, Zana's grandfather, "just carved more, some with human footprints thrown in."

See also