Petrified Forest National Park

BY IDA SMITH BLACK AND WHITE PHOTOGRAPHS BY JOSEF MUENCH National park status for Petrified For-est National Monument has long been a cherished dream of many Arizonans and others throughout the United States," said Secretary of the Interior Stewart L. Udall when, on November 7, 1962, he signed an order designating the monument a national park. The cherished dream came true thirty days later, on December 8, when the Petrified Forest became our thirty-first national park. The park, with its jeweled trees, contains the largest and most colorful occurrence of petrified wood in the world; a rare treasure to which Arizonans can point with justifiable pride. Surrounding the wood lies a colorful and spectacular landscape whose dramatic story is unsurpassed by any other in the world. The 94,161-acre park, with its new facilities, will be dedicated early this summer by ceremonies planned by the National Park Service. Seecretary Udall is scheduled to make the dedication address. The ceremonies will be held in the new Painted Desert Visitor Center. Legislation for the new park status was sponsored in 1958 by then Congressman Udall and Senator Carl Hayden. The authorization was passed by Congress the same year but, before the order could become effective, 8,174 acres of private and state land within the park boundaries had to be acquired by the federal government. The question is often asked, "What is the difference between a national monument and a national park?" A national monument is proclaimed as such either by Presi-dential order or by an act of Congress for the purpose of preserving a special feature; botanical, geological or archeological. A monument may have exceptional scenery, but this is not a requisite as it is with a park. A park is so designated by an act of Congress to preserve an outstanding example of scenery or landscape in its original wilderness state. The dream of national park status for the Petrified Forest had its beginning back in 1895 when the Arizona territorial legislature set aside the land of the area for a national park. But when President Theodore Roosevelt established the Petrified Forest National Monument in 1906, the landscape areas surrounding the petrified trees were thought of by some as "God-forsaken desert"-so the rainbow-hued trees were commemorated in a na-tional monument; their mysterious and silent "badlands" forgotten, so to speak, until the strange and impressive part which they played in the story of the great trees was to be interpreted by the cooperative efforts of scientists and naturalists many years later. It was no easy matter to acquire even the monument status for the Petrified Forest. At the turn of the century people were still too close to the necessity of conquering the wilderness rather than preserving it; too occupied with wresting a livelihood from the land instead of admir-ing petrified rainbows. Many had not the background that opened their eyes to the beauties of nature. With the completion of the Atlantic and Pacific Railroad (later to become the Santa Fe) across Arizona Territory in 1883, news of the petrified trees spread. It was not any sense of wonder that brought certain visitors to view the stone trees, but the greedy question, "How much can we make out of them?" The great raid began. Logs were dynamited. An abrasive stamp mill was established near the little town of Adamana to pulverize the petrified logs. Prehistoric Indian ruins were looted.

Arizona was still a territory, but many who visited the Petrified Forest, and realized its importance, became alarmed. A citizens' petition was sent to Congress. Professor Lester F. Ward of the U.S. Geological Survey made a careful investigation. Due to his report, the Act for the Preservation of American Antiquities, which had been sponsored by Representative John F. Lacey, was passed by Congress, and under this authority President Theodore Roosevelt on December 8, 1906, established the Petrified Forest National Monument. Dr. Ward was the Forest's first scientific observer. Al Stevenson, who lived in the vicinity, was the new monument's first guardian, serving as such until 1912 for the fee of $1 per month.

In the early 1900's, when Adam Hana and his wife, Anna, instituted the first Petrified Forest tours from their ranch, the tolerant amusement of some of the natives regarding the tours was lessened when they found they could rent their horses and carriages to the visitors. The little town of Adamana was named for the Hanas.

In 1929 custodian status was changed to that of superintendent, and Charles J. (White Mountain) Smith became the monument's first superintendent. In 1934 M. V. Walker was appointed its first full-time naturalist.

For many years thereafter a dedicated staff of monument officials and rangers guarded the rainbow forest for future generations to see. Scientists and naturalists decoded the fantastic story written in the petrified wood, the fossilized plants and animals found in the area, and in the Painted Desert badlands. Hundreds of thousands have visited the Forest each year, have learned the story from the rangers and naturalists, and have gone away with a new and more thoughtful perspective. In 1932 the most spectacular part of the Painted Desert was added to the monument. With the increase of visitors and better knowledge of the monument's great value, pressure for park status began to come from many influential directions both near and far.

"Due to the support of all interested persons," said former Monument Superintendent Fred C. Fagergren, "the efforts for park status have finally borne fruit. Prominent among those persons are Secretary of the Interior Stewart L. Udall and Senator Carl Hayden. The late Will C. Barnes, noted Arizona historian, ex-State Senator Lloyd C. Henning, G. L. Noel, former Holbrook postmaster, Fred A. Schuster, former manager of Holbrook's oldest merchandise store, and J. R. McEvov, former president of the First National Bank of Hofbrook, all

The Painted Desert

sneak their stomach, doppect." Hanes, a park was crasll Fogapron yren served as superstendent of the Prefied Forest Nulous! Μαπακωστε ότι rey through most of agês, đưng which he and his thirty-two-wsaber. staff were active in the new park suprovement program, for which in exame of a million dolars had been located wonder the Audon 66 program. Chief aming the inqmoswents is the now Paloved Desert Community kummediately march of the US. 66 interchange with its Park Hand quarters and Visher Caster. The Handgasses and Veitor Coone were officially opeικό Λαγοσα Αχ, τρба, mid foxcomar Superiotzadest Fegagres. At tids wrkdog, plans for tisa new sosomatty will include an emaily heli, saskatuerase insilloga, vansdoyer apartments, and focare school. The original Author Forst Mo will be sadatnined with to exidbits of pezified wood sod foozil plante mod wiela. The Printed Desert κα will be expanded to incinds the complete sary of the Pondfied Forest. Cocasines at both ends of the park wilt furdish wlators with wars, meak and grobne. An additional Spoo,ooo was later allocated for a poble works progreen, which inchades fencing the park bonodary. The Dew importants are expected to be completed by Jans 1, in anticipation of increased visitation. Videos to the Including Fagergrar's staff (and still these) were Chief Park Naturalist Phiếp Vas Chave, Chief Pack Wongte Phillip Ivezson, Adeklarative Assistant Vera M. Teger, and General Forensen Troy J. Strickland.

Left in 1962 Faggren was transferred to Wyoming to be superintendent of Grand Teton National Park. Δαμαλεκτάση Charles E. Humberger, formerly des шан арыйанобенt of Zion National Park, fee taken over as saprdntendent of the new Prezified Forvet Nodoumi Park The park was embracive as to colorful parts of the Petrified Forest and the Painted Desert. Sections of such, where contemplating a scenario outside the park, are geologically identical to their counterpart within the park, though not as colorful. The most spectacular parts are walled within the national park boundaries. "It is easy to think of the Painted Desert as separate from the petrified forest," once Chief Park Naturalist Philip Vas Clave, but we are making a conscious effort to get away from the concept, and to think of the Painted Desert section of the park, and the Petrified Forest section. Evidencing that one is part of and supplements the other.

To preserve and protect national parks and monuments, a policy was established in what is known as those National Park Standards. The policy was based on ideas of Femldin, K. Lane, former Secretary of the Interior, and Stephen T. Mather, first director of the first director of the National Park Service, and strengthened in time due to increased travel and modernized transportation.

Highlights of the policy declare that a primeval park (or monument )shall be a sanctuary for the preservation of all animal and plant life within its limits-that all native species shall be preserved as nearly as possible in their aboriginal state-that wildness features shall be kept unimpaired except as the policy shall be given reasonable sway to opening specific areas-due with respect to any unique geological formations or banks on prehistoric ruins within its confines, each primeval park shall be regarded as an outdoor museum, the preservation whose treasures is a sacred trust. Educational and spiritual herein to be derived from contacts with pristine wilderness areas are of prime importance to all people, and call for the understanding and vigilant endurance of public teens by responsible government agencies-these monetary, scientific and tourism-optional mass transit afford always take precedence over nonconforming uses.

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Protected rigidly by the government for future generations to study and admire, the jeweled trees lie in state in one of the world's most fantastic preserves.

One cannot visit the Petrified Forest and sense its immensity in time without a desire to know the answers to its silent riddles. And one cannot view the living Araucaria without being reminded of their ancient relatives, from whom they were separated by geologic changes millions of years ago. Their conspicuously outstretched branches seem to beckon, "Come with us and take a journey back into time."

We go back in retrospect 170 million years, and stand at the edge of a Triassic forest. Here we find the Araucarias, some 200 feet tall and twelve feet in diameter, forming a shelter for luxurious ferns and club mosses. Other conifers, and several unidentified tree species, are growing not far away. Among them ancient streams wind, keeping the swamp lands flooded. Here the mighty Phytosaur roams, weighing nearly a ton; his nostrils on top of his head. He is a crocodile-like reptile with webbed feet and flattened tail. Lung fishes swim in quiet pools, and along the marshes clumsily moves the huge Stegocephalian, a primitive amphibian with a third eye in the top of his head. We wonder if we are viewing creatures from some grotesque fairy tale--or is Nature performing a kind of strange experiment. As yet there are no seasons or flowering plants as we know them, and no singing birds, but only seasonal floods. Here the ancient Araucarias have flourished for thousands of years.

It is the latter part of the Triassic Period. Scattered throughout the area are hundreds of fallen giants. Some were uprooted by the wind. Some perhaps were killed by fire and disease. Soon those that are left will go to their long rest, too. And the waters will cover them and wash many of them away from the place where they grew.

We close our eyes, and when we open them again there is no forest. Only the low murmur of a Cretaceous sea as it covers a vast plain. But before the arm of the sea came in, the streams carried the fallen giants to their resting places and buried them. They brought great quantities of mud, sand, and mineral-laden volcanic ash down from the mountains, and covered the great trees to a depth of 400 or more feet; like colossal robins covering babes in the woods. This curious mantle is called the Chinle Formation. And far above their resting place, we watch the ebb and flow of ancient seas as they add marine deposits to cover the Chinle Formation with still another blanket which will ultimately attain a thickness of 3000 feet.

A hundred million years pass, during which one of Nature's most exquisite and unbelievable arts is perfected. It is as though she were trying in one sublime effort to atone for the tragedy and sadness of death. Or to disprove, perhaps, its seeming tragedy and to place in the earth where Mankind would someday find it, a symbol of immortality. For in the mud of the Chinle Formation Arizona's jeweled trees are born. The slow and mysterious fossilization of wood had begun.

Silica-laden waters carrying traces of iron, manganese and other colorful minerals seep into the frame work of the fallen giants. Cells and crevices are filled with silica, its traces of iron to become beautiful shades of red, yellow and brown as the iron oxidizes. It is tinted with the blacks and purples of carbon and manganese, and in rare places with the blues and greens of copper and chromium-these colors to be preserved in silica as today we preserve things in plastic, except that when silica hardens it is much harder than plastic or even glass. As ages pass and the water slowly subsides, the mineral-discolored silica (or quartz) preserves the identifying features of the (disintegrated) wood.

Now something is happening to the ancient sea and the hidden plain that was flooded. It is near the close of the Cretaceous Period. Many miles away, two huge mountain systems are being born; the Sierras and the Rockies. As they slowly lift their great heights toward the sky, the flood plain is lifted with them. This is how deserts come to be.

During the next sixty million years the agatized trees, enfolded in their Chinle mantle, are slowly being uncovered by the erosive agents of wind and rain. Eventually the 3000 feet of overlying deposits are swept and washed away. Then, a part of the uppermost Chinle Formation, and finally, after centuries of time, much of Arizona's rainbow forest lies glistening in the sun. Some of the trees have been broken into sections, in places as uniform as though a giant had sawed them; but the "giant" is thought to have been the rhythmic tremors of volcanic activity that pushed the Sierras and Rockies up and transformed the Petrified Forest into a desert. Other breakage of the brittle logs has obviously been caused by the settling of soil, and by erosion. Here our journey into the prehistory of time ends, and that of history begins.

It is not known what white man may first have viewed the Petrified Forest. Coronado must have seen the Painted Desert as early as 1539, since he recorded his impression of it as "El Desierto Pintado." The first written report of the "stone trees" was made in 1851 by Lieutenant Lorenzo Sitgreaves. In 1857 Lieutenant Edward Beal passed through the area with his experimental camel-train and told of seeing the petrified trees.

After a time the careful work of scientists pieced together much of the remarkable story of the fallen giants. Their proved findings have become history. But in his booklet "Agatized Rainbows," Harold J. Brodrick says, "The petrification of wood has never been studied sufficiently, and there are many questions for which satisfactory answers have not yet been advanced." Scientists believe that some of the trees grew upstream perhaps a hundred or so miles west and southwest of the Petrified Forest. Evidence bears this out. However, there are stumps still standing in the Petrified Forest.

Six "forests" are named within the 94,161 acres of the Petrified Forest National Park. These we know of course are not actual forests, but are log accummulations that were washed together. If soil were removed from logs still buried, we might find that two or more of the forests are parts of the same accumulation. A large number of logs are still buried.

"In the early days," says Chief Park Naturalist Van Cleave, "the forest nearest Adamana became First Forest,' the next on the route, 'Second Forest,' ending up at the southwest corner of the area with 'Third Forest' and 'Rainbow Forest.' Two other forests which were visited as separate side trips from Adamana were named 'Black Forest' and 'Blue Forest.'

NOTES FOR PHOTOGRAPHERS

PETRIFIED FOREST NATIONAL PARK OFFERS A DAZZLING WONDERLAND OF COLOR AND FANTASTIC LANDSCAPES FOR THE PLEASURE OF THE CAMERA-PACKING VISITORS.

OPPOSITE PAGE

"THE ETERNAL GIANT" BY DARWIN VAN CAMPEN. This photograph shows Old Faithful Log in Petrified Forest National Park, one of the most famous of all petrified logs in the area. A polarizing filter was used to reduce the glare of the polished surfaces of the logs. 4x5 Linhof camera; Ektachrome; f.14 at 1/25th sec.; 90mm Angulon lens; August; bright sunlight; Weston Meter reading 300; ASA rating 64.

FOLLOWING PAGES

"LAND OF CRUMPLED RAINBOWS" BY DARWIN VAN CAMPEN. Photograph taken in Jasper Forest, Petrified Forest National Park. While every section of the Petrified Forest shares in the colorful heritage of this fantastic land, the logs of Jasper Forest seem particularly determined to break the bounds of the spectrum with their brilliant and varied outbursts of color. 4x5 Linhof camera; Ektachrome; f.22 at 1/50th sec.; 90mm Angulon lens; August; bright sunlight; Weston Meter reading 400; ASA rating 64.

"THE MANY-SPLENDORED LAND" BY JOSEF MUENCH. View from the Blue Mesa, Petrified Forest National Park. Narrowleaved yuccas (Y. angustissima) put up their delicate bud stalks on a crest looking down over the blue veinings of clay hills of the Painted Desert on a setting which, aside from the flowers, might be something like a moonscape. 4x5 Linhof camera; Ektachrome; f.20 at 1/10th sec.; 6" Xenar lens; May.

"AGATE BRIDGE PETRIFIED FOREST" BY JOSEF MUENCH. Agate Bridge, Petrified Forest National Park. If man could have arrived sooner in this remarkably colorful desert area, he might have found hundreds of petrified logs as long as this one, which here has been supported as it bridges an arroyo. It will not break of its own weight as others have, as their clay wrappings and supports were eroded away. The log is 111 feet long, with a bridge span of about forty feet and is found in Jasper Forest. 4x5 Linhof camera; Ektachrome; f.18 at 1/50th sec.; 6" Xenar lens.

"TOUCH OF SPRING IN PETRIFIED FOREST" BY JOSEF MUENCH. Photograph taken in Petrified Forest National Park. Spring has added the charm of the yellow Sego lily (Calochortus nuttalli) to the rich tones of a log of petrified wood, to make a contrast not alone in textures but between the flora of some 170 million years ago and the fresh flowers of today. 4x5 Speed Graphic camera; Kodachrome; f.18 at 1/10th sec.; 6" Ektar lens; May.

"IN THE ERODED LAND" BY JOSEF MUENCH. In Jasper Forest, Petrified Forest National Park. Great chunks of logs, turned to semi-precious stone, tumble out on the open desert in the brilliant Jasper Forest. In the background are clay hills, the material nature used to wrap the ancient trees while they were being transformed. 4x5 Linhof camera; Ektachrome; f.14 at 1/50th sec.; 6" Xenar lens; May.

"OF COLOR AND DISTANCE" BY DAVID MUENCH. Photograph taken in the vicinity of Agate House, Petrified Forest National Park. Petrified wood is shown here scattered over the uneven ground where it has been eroded out of the painted clays of the Triassic Age. Visitors see here the world's finest display of petrified logs, big and small, enhancing the stark beauty of the desert landscape. 4x5 Speed Graphic camera; Ektachrome; f.16 at 1/50th sec.; 6" Ektar lens.

CENTER PANELS

"COLOR AS FAR AS EYE CAN SEE" BY CARLOS ELMER. Photograph taken along the main north-south road through Petri-fied Forest National Park, looking east. The eroded hills of colorful clay and sand add to the interest of Arizona's Petrified Forest, especially when the billowing clouds of summertime add to the mood. Burke & James Panoram; Ektachrome E-2; f.9 at 1/100th sec.; 5" Ross lens; bright day; Meter reading 400; ASA rating 32.

"ALL THAT REMAINS OF A MIGHTY MONARCH" BY CARLOS ELMER. Another view of Old Faithful Log, Petrified Forest National Park. The huge expanse of Old Faithful Log is probably the most famous piece of petrified wood in the world. It is found along a trail leading from the back door of the Mu-seum. Burke & James Panoram; Ektachrome E-2; f.9 at 1/100th sec.; 5" Ross lens; summer; bright day; meter reading 400; ASA rating 32.

"WHERE THE ANCIENTS ONCE LIVED" BY JOSEF MUENCH. Photograph shows Agate House, Petrified Forest. Here are prehistoric ruins, an ancient house, built of semi-precious stones! There are myths telling of cities whose streets were paved with gold, but where else would you find houses built of such rainbow shades and semi-precious stones? Agate House was occupied by prehistoric people some 800 years ago. It was reconstructed in 1933. 4x5 Speed Graphic camera; Kodachrome; f.16 at 1/10th sec.; 6" Ektar lens; May.

"COLORFUL DANCING HORIZONS" BY DAVID MUENCH. The Painted Desert section of Petrified Forest Na-tional Park. Looking from the Rim of the Painted Desert (as the early Spanish explorers named it), the visitor sees a badland of fabulous colors, never the same from one visit to the next. 4x5 Speed Graphic camera; Ektachrome; f.16 at 1/50th sec.; 6" Ektar lens; June.

"TEPEES OF COLORED CLAY" BY JOSEF MUENCH. A view of a portion of the Painted Desert as seen along the road in Petrified Forest National Park. These formations are called the Tepees, named, of course, for their resemblance to the pointed tents of the Plains Indians. They are huge clay hills, showing bands of colors in the clay and sandstone. 4x5 Linhof camera; Ektachrome; f.14 at 1/25th sec.; 6" Xenar lens; August.

"VIEW FROM KACHINA POINT, PETRIFIED FOREST" BY JOSEF MUENCH. In the Painted Desert section of Petrified Forest National Park. The view is from Kachina Point. 4x5 Linhof camera; Ektachrome; f.20 at 1/50th sec.; 6" Xenar lens; July.

"WHERE ONCE ANCIENT SEAS HELD SWAY" BY JOSEF MUENCH. In the Jasper Forest, Petrified Forest National Park. Logs, lying among the clay hills of an ancient landscape, have been "chopped" into lengths, along breaks probably resulting from earth disturbances while they were still hidden in the clay. They have fallen apart as they were tumbled out in the final process of erosion. 4x5 Linhof camera; Ektachrome; f.16 at 1/50th sec.; 6" Xenar lens; July.

"JEWELED LOGS IN PETRIFIED FOREST" BY JOSEF MUENCH. Here are shown polished petrified logs at Rainbow Forest Museum. Polishing of these petrified logs brings out the colors caused by minerals which seeped into the logs along with the silica which helped harden them into their present form. No two pieces of petrified wood are ever quite alike and when cut and polished show a variety of colors as well as fascinating pat-terns and designs. 4x5 Linhof camera; Ektachrome; f.20 at 1/25th sec.; 6" Xenar lens; October.

OPPOSITE PAGE "JASPER FOREST-PETRIFIED FOREST NATIONAL PARK" BY JOSEF MUENCH. Photograph taken in the Jasper Forest, Petrified Forest National Park. There seems no end to the number of logs, lying on clay slopes and almost forming rivers as they have rolled down banks, breaking apart to show the brilliant colors hidden under the dark bark and showing knot-holes as well. 4x5 Linhof camera; Ektachrome; f.16 at 1/25th sec.; 6" Xenar lens; May.

"In more recent years, we have applied the name 'Jasper Forest' to First Forest; 'Crystal Forest' to Second; and 'The Long Logs' to that part of Rainbow Forest previously known as Third Forest. The reason for these name changes was to avoid the frequent misinterpretation of the old names wherein visitors assumed that First Forest was geologically the first, hence the oldest, etc. The new names are not without drawback in that Jasper Forest is not by any means the sole locality for jasperized wood, but the new names are more descriptive and, we hope, less confusing. The area previously named Blue Forest, we now refer to as 'Blue Mesa,' for the blue coloration of the shale beds exposed here, rather than of the petrified wood."

The Chinle Formation in which the petrified logs are found received its variety of bright colors from traces of minerals included. It consisted first of mineralized volcanic ash which nature later converted into clay-like material called bentonite. Erosion of the multicolored bentonite beds gave the Petrified Forest its picturesque pinnacles and weird "badlands."

Jasper Forest contains an abundance of highly colored broken logs, and the long log that forms Agate Bridge. This log is 111 feet long, and the bridge has a span of forty feet. Agate Bridge is the most noted petrified log in the world.

In Crystal Forest, the silicified logs are whitish. Bentonite clay is normally whitish, the same as silica, unless it is colored with minerals, so it is evident that Crystal Forest contained less mineralization with color. Here we find hollow places in logs containing quartz crystals.

Long Logs Forest contains the finest of the long logs. Petrified logs range up to 160 feet in length. It was here, 800 or 900 years ago, that prehistoric people built a house of petrified wood. Its ruin is the famous Agate House. Agate House was reconstructed in 1933 by Dr. H. P. Mera, noted anthropologist.

Rainbow Forest contains some of the most beautifully colored sections of petrified logs. One of the largest is "Old Faithful." In Rainbow Forest Museum are displays of polished sections of petrified wood, and fossils of animal and plant life that inhabited the Forest in Triassic times. These fossils tell us something of climatic conditions here 170 million years ago. The fossil leaves are said to be the most beautiful ever discovered. Their impressions were found in the shales of Blue Mesa and other

Ancient rock pictures

places in the Forest. When cracked from the blue-gray shale, the fossil leaves disclosed vivid red, brown and black colors. The elevation at Rainbow Forest is 5,472 feet.

Photographer Moulton Smith describes the tiny museum here in 1930: "It contained a small exhibit of petrified wood only. Several pieces had been sent to Germany to be cut and polished. One of these was a sphere. There were few lapidaries in the United States then, compared with the thousands today."

Blue Mesa is notable for its pink petrified logs. John Muir, famous naturalist, named it "Blue Forest" in 1906. In 1930 President Herbert Hoover proclaimed it a part of the Petrified Forest National Monument. The logs here can be seen on three levels. Here are numerous chip piles. But souvenir hunters, beware! These chips are protected by Uncle Sam along with everything else in the Park. If each of the thousands who visit the Park annually, took just one little chip, soon there would be none left for our grandchildren to see. Not far from Blue Mesa is the famed "Newspaper Rock," Indian petroglyphs. Petroglyphs are drawings that have been pecked or chiseled in stone. Those in the Petrified Forest have been called the classic examples of such in the Southwest. Black Forest, discovered by Lieutenant A. W. Whipple in 1853, lies out in the Painted Desert. Its dark petrified wood makes a striking contrast to the red, yellow, orange, blue, purple and brown colors of the Painted Desert. In the far northwest corner of the Painted Desert stands Pilot Rock, the highest point in the Park. Its elevation is 6,234 feet.

The fantastic colors, eroded pinnacles, spectacular badlands, and agatized logs--all were formed directly or indirectly by wind, rain, earth movements and mineral-laden waters following the lines of least resistance. Their formation and distribution was by whimsical chance-or was it? When millions of years later we summarize the overall story of the submersion, the long process of transformation, the uplifting again, and the uncovering of one of Nature's most exquisite works, we wonder!

More than one hundred prehistoric Indian ruins of archeological value are scattered on the mesas throughout the area. They are of the Puebloan culture and date back to pre-Columbian times, A.D. 800 to 1400.

After the Petrified Forest became a national monument, those who had plundered it transferred their op-erations to privately owned land in the vicinity. One such property was a hundred and ten sections of ranch land owned by Johnny Jones, not far from the Painted Desert. Of the raiders, Johnny's son, Stanley said, "Those moochers are no better than horse thieves!" After dickering with the merely thoughtless, and chasing the aggressive ones away, Stanley salvaged most of the specimens on his father's ranch, which included some of the finest of petrified picture wood. To bring out the striking patterns in the picture wood, the Woodworthia and the Schilderia, he cut and polished them. The results are strikingly beautiful.

erations to privately owned land in the vicinity. One such property was a hundred and ten sections of ranch land owned by Johnny Jones, not far from the Painted Desert. Of the raiders, Johnny's son, Stanley said, "Those moochers are no better than horse thieves!" After dickering with the merely thoughtless, and chasing the aggressive ones away, Stanley salvaged most of the specimens on his father's ranch, which included some of the finest of petrified picture wood. To bring out the striking patterns in the picture wood, the Woodworthia and the Schilderia, he cut and polished them. The results are strikingly beautiful.

Three outstanding species of petrified wood have been found in the Park and adjoining areas; the Araucarian, which is the most numerous, and which contains the picture wood; the Woodworthia arizonica and the Schilderia adamanica. Woodworthia, a conifer, is found mostly in shades of gray, sometimes with black markings, green and blue, except when in close association with the more colorful Araucarian. The Schilderia, a gold and black wood, has peculiar radiating rays, and is not related to any species known today. "It seems likely," says Chief Park Naturalist Van Cleave, "that the latter two may be of later appearance than the Araucarioxylon."

Crystals of quartz, calcite and barite are found in crevices in the petrified wood. The quartz occurs in clear, amethyst, black, and other colors, according to the minerals that colored them.

Certain less colorful types of petrified wood are found in other Arizona localities. In some earlier writings it is stated that petrified wood may be collected outside the national park, but in September, 1962, Congress passed a bill to "lock up for safe keeping the petrified wood on public domain lands." So it is now unlawful to collect petrified wood on any government-owned land.

The first known public exhibition of petrified wood took place in 1885 at the New Orleans Exposition. Among the first gem stones and polished pieces of this wood to be displayed were those of Hatch, Drake and Company at the 1889 Paris Exposition.

Gem stones in petrified wood are described the same as those occuring elsewhere: Chalcedony is noncrystalline quartz and is normally white. Agate is colored chalcedony. It is translucent and may be all one color or variegated. Jasper is opaque chalcedony and may be red, brown, yellow, blue or green or a combination. Picture wood is found in all of these in the Araucarian, the tree-like formations often caused by manganese, which has a tendency to form in dendritic or tree-like patterns. More than three hundred living plant species have been identified in the Petrified Forest National Park. A fine herbarium is in process. A check list of birds, at present count, numbers 131 species, thirty of which are residents. Instead of the huge reptiles of Triassic times, the Park has several small varieties of harmless (beneficial) snakes and lizards. There are also a few rattlesnakes, the only poisonous species, but these are seldom seen. The Park's mammals are the antelope, occasional coyotes and bobcats, porcupine, prairie dogs, rabbits, etc. The Park is open the year round. A picnic ground equipped with tables, shade and water is available for free daytime use only. There are no camping facilities. Meals and gasoline may be obtained at Park concessions. The road through the Park is closed to through travel at night. The nearest towns with hotel and cabin facilities are Holbrook, Arizona, approximately twenty miles west; Gallup, New Mexico, ninety-two miles east; and St. Johns, Arizona, approximately forty-two miles southeast.

These mileages vary slightly depending upon the routing used. Communications for further information should be addressed to Superintendent, Petrified Forest National Park, Holbrook, Arizona. One of the most beautiful descriptions of the Petrified Forest and Painted Desert was written by the Forest's first superintendent, Charles J. (White Mountain) Smith in 1938, in his petition to the National Park Service to then have the monument designated a national park. He described the scenic features; the nature-carved formations in their "contrasting color effects of blues, grays, reds and browns . . . The soft tones of yellow, pink, orchid, battling with bolder colors of red, blue and purple." He said, "At sunrise a luminous haze lies softly over the formations, giving them a velvety sheen no painter has been able to capture on canvas. At sunset, when the last red beam of light drapes itself across the shadowy depth of the gorge, then beauty itself dwells in every faint line, softened and screened by the dying light."