 A farm boy, Pliny Moody, came across the trackways in 1802.They were popularly regarded as bird footprints and they were so identified by the professor of natural history, later president, at Amherst College Edward Hitchcock, beginning in 1836 in articles in the American Journal of Science and in his final work "Ichnology of New England" (1858).Later, they were of significance to the naturalist and supporter of Darwin, Thomas Huxley.