The Discovery:
In 1968 William J. Meister and his family and friends were hunting fossils at Antelope Springs, 43 miles from Delta Utah. They were breaking open rock slabs with hammers and found many trilobite fossils. When one two inch thick slab was broken open, what appeared to be a sandaled footprint was discovered with two trilobite fossils in the step. Other imprints appearing to be human tracks have also been found in the same area but without the trilobite smoking gun. Dr. Clifford Burdick investigated the area and found other prints as well as the barefoot imprint of a child's foot complete with toes. The Meister Print is located at the Creation Evidence Museum
Established Theory:
Trilobites, relatives of crabs and shrimps, are according to the evolutionists one of the oldest living creatures on earth. They existed from about 600 to 280 million years ago. The shale rock of the area is from the carboniferous period (290 to 355 million years ago).
The only report found refuting the Meister Print as human in origin is Glen Kuban who reports that the sandaled print is spalling of the rock, a natural occurence. It does not appear that he actually investigated the evidence itself but made his observation from pictures alone though I am not sure of this. Kuban is strongly motivated by his doctrinal bias which states that no human could have existed at the same time as trilobites. While his argument that the print is natural cannot be completely ignored, it would support the evolutionary theory. No evolutionist would consider the print was from a human made sandal as it would prove that the evolutionary theory was wrong.
Alternative Theory:
The footprints are of sandaled feet. In one of the sole prints the actual stitching of the sandal can be seen according to some reports. Also, Dr. Burdick claims to have found a child's barefoot in the same area proving that the prints are human but, I have not seen a picture of this. The doctrinal bias on the part of the creationist is not as strong as the evolutionists as the creationist viewpoint is not proven wrong if the print is not human. But, if the print is human it would prove that the evolutionist theory of the origins of man is wrong supporting the creationist viewpoint.
Conclusions:
The tracks do seem to represent a sandaled foot with a very pronounceable heel imprint. If the prints are genuinely human, the theory of evolution is wrong and humans have either existed on the earth for over 280 million years or the trilobites did not become extinct until the recent past. One other note is that the prints were found in a vertical position high on a steep angled wall which means that if they are footprints, the area had been severely uplifted and tilted after they were formed.
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