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.

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