G.A.S.P.

Heading south from the last of the overlooks, there is a long, narrow corridor of parkland that passes over I-40 and the Santa Fe Railroad before entering a butte and mesa area where the petrified forests lie scattered and silent. They’re rocks now, mostly quartz, but 225 million years ago (late Triassic Period) stood tall as Araucarioxylon, Woodworthia and Schilderia trees. In the time of a great flood, the trees fell and were washed by swollen streams onto a floodplain. There they were quickly covered by silt, mud and volcanic ash, which cut off oxygen and slowed decay of the trees. Gradually, silica-bearing groundwater seeped through the logs and, bit by bit, replaced the wood tissue with silica deposits. Eventually, the silica crystallized into quartz, and the logs were preserved as petrified wood. Later, the entire area sank and was covered by freshwater sediments, then rose again, only to be exposed to the forces of erosion that have now uncovered the logs we see today in this National Park. There is also still much more below the surface - up to 300 feet of fossil bearing material remains in some areas of the park.

Click on thumbnails to see full photographs.

After this area was "discovered" by Army surveyors in the mid-1800s, the petrified wood became "easy pickings" for local farmers and ranchers, as well as sightseers from back east. Soon, however, area residents realized that the supply of petrified wood was not endless, and began to petition the government to do something to protect what remained. John Muir, who discovered fossil bones here in the winter of 1905/1906, was one of those who helped convince President Theodore Roosevelt to preserve the area as a National Monument in 1906. In 1932, 2500 acres of the Painted Desert were purchased and added to the Monument, and in 1962 it became Petrified Forest National Park.

The National Park Service is getting serious about protecting its remaining petrified wood resources from amateur thieves who think it’s okay to stick a piece in the pocket and take it home. Each visitor now gets a piece of paper with their park brochure that explains the seriousness of the problem, advises the illegality of taking anything from the park, and announces a fine of $250 for doing so. They also promote a program based on the "turn in a (drug) pusher" concept. This one is "turn in a wood thief". You would like to think that people would just know better, but they don’t. Besides, anyone who wants a piece of petrified wood can buy one from several sources right outside the park boundaries.