Petrified Forest, The

The, a name given to a remarkable region of petrified trees in Arizona. Large deposits of petrified wood may be found in various parts of New Mexico, Utah, Wyoming, and California. There is an abundance of petrified wood in the Yellowstone National Park. There are numerous localities in Arizona where petrified wood occurs in abundance, but the petrified forest is probably the most remarkable fossilized forest region in the world. In 1908 Congress set aside some 3,000 acres in Navajo County, embracing the scenic part of the region, as a government reservation. This stone forest lies in the mesa country near the railway station of Holbrook on the Santa Fe route.

The geologist accounts for the origin of the petrifactions by supposing that a noble forest was overwhelmed by a volcanic outburst. The volcanic material packed in around the trees both standing and fallen. As fast as the vegetable tissue of the wood decayed and was carried away its place was occupied by mineral matter. The geological formation of the country is full of interest. Aside from the petrified wood, the shales, clays, and sandstones of many colors have been eroded into bizarre shapes rivalling those of the Bad Lands. These softer materials have been weathered by countless ages and have been carried away by water. When the supporting rocks were worn away, the brittle, heavy, petrified trees, being without support, fell into fragments, leaving the surface strewn with chips, branches, blocks and trunks of a pine forest now turned into stone.

One ravine and canyon has been washed out, leaving a natural bridge of the petrified trunk of a fallen pine. The roots of the old tree are buried in one bank. The top is hidden in the other bank. This forest bridge is forty-four feet long and is thirty feet above the bottom of the canyon. Recently it has shown signs of cracking and falling, as thousands of other brittle trunks have done, but the government caretakers have built two abutments to prevent disaster. The old tree trunks have been turned into chalcedony, opal, and agate. Sections resemble onyx and jasper. The fragments are as heavy as lead. The blocks that lie everywhere show not only the grain of the wood but even the knots. There is seemingly every shade of red, yellow, purple, and lavender.

Formerly a large business was done in hauling away this stone for exhibition and for the manufacture of table tops and similar articles, but the government has thought well to put a stop to the practice. Visitors are permitted to carry away chips as mementos.