Article April 19, 1900 Issue

A Petrified Forest

with contributions from W. F. McDowell

The Territory of Arizona is a vast museum of natural curiosities, including many of the most wonderful in all the world, says a wirter in the Chicago Record. The atmosphere, the climate, the mountains, the soil, the rivers, the forests are filled with phenomena, many of which exist nowhere else. In the desert, three hundred miles square, with Flagstaff as a centre, are spread out a variety of wonders of which the people of this country have little or no conception, but if they were in Europe or Asia thousands of our citizens would cross the ocean to see them. Being within only two or three days' journey of Chicago, and easy of access by frequent trains of sleeping and dining cars and other modern luxuries of travel, they are overlooked by the multitude and are practically unknown.

To my mind, next to the Grand Canyon of the Colorado, the most interesting and impressive of the natural wonders of this great Arizona museum is the petrified forest, which covers nearly one hundred square miles, within easy distance, either on foot or horseback, from Billings station, on the Santa Fe Railroad; but it can be more easily reached by carriages from Holdbrook, where better accommodations can be found. The government explorers have christened it Chalcedony Park.

The surface of the ground for miles and miles around is covered with gigantic logs three or four feet in diameter, petrified to the core. Many of them are translucent. Some are almost transparent. All present the most beautiful shades of blue, yellow, pink, purple, red, and gray. Some are like gigantic amethysts, some resemble the smoky topaz, and some are as pure and white as alabaster. At places the chips of agate from the trunks that have crumbled lie a foot deep upon the ground, and it is easy to obtain cross sections of trees showing every vein and even the bark. Comparatively little of this agate has been used in manufacturing, although it is easy to obtain. Manufacturing jewelers of New York have made table tops and boxes and other articles from strips that have been sent them, and if the material were not so abundant its beauty would command enormous prices. Where you can get a carload of jewelry for nothing you are not likely to pay high prices for it.

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