Little Falls transcript. [volume] (Little Falls, Morrison County, Minn.) 1876-1894, 1885-10-16
TIE Ma IONAeI. PAI3l.
escriptiono Of Potrined lIountain- IL Re-
lnarkablo l1eolo9ioal Curiosifies VS.

Description Of Petrihed lLountain. III Re-
isf n1narkabIe Geological curiosifi es.
San Francisco Post: It will natur-
ally be- asked, what's certified Noun
tainl It is an immense mountain
near the northeast corner Of the park
lying between the forks Of the Yellow
stone q few miles above their junction.
It was called Petrifed Mountain by
prospectors several years before it
was seen by Dr.. Hayden, who seems
to haveconsidered himself called upon
to rechristen it, which he did, giving it
the more poetic namesof Amethyst
Mountain" Junction Valley is one
of the most beautiful regions of the
park. The valley along the east fork
is particularly attractive. For twenty
miles it is very broad, Astounding in
grassy meadows and delightful parks.
On the north side rises the massive
range of Yellowstone Mountains, and
on the south is Petrified or Amethyst
Mountain. Riding along the trail at
the base of this mountain, one is as
tonished to see great numbers of pet
ritied logs of remarkable size and
beauty. In places the side. of the
mountain is covered with them. About
ten miles above the mouth of East
Fork this mountain rises very
abruptly over 1900 feet above
the level of the stream. The
face is a succession of steppes,
varying in thickness. Upon these
steppes the petrifed trunks stand out
10 hn Hf
The standing trunks are generally
short, seldom more than six feet in
height, but a few were four Or FIVE
times as tall. Fallen trunks are
found over fifty feet in length. Prof.
w. H. Holmes, in his report on a. ge-
illogical survey made by him in 1873,
says: Zone upright trunk Of gigantic
proportions rises from the inclosing
strata to the height of twelve feet.
BY cartful measurement it was found
to be ten feet in diameter, and as
there is nothing to indicate to what
part of the tree the exposed sections
belongs, the roots may be far below
the surface, and we are free to mag
inc that there is buried here q worthy
predecessor OF the giant sequoias of
California. Although the trunk is
hollow and partly broken down on
one side, the woody structure is
perfectly preserved, the grain is
straight and the circles of growth dis
tinctly marked. The bark which still
remains on the firmer parts, is four
inches thick and retains perfectly the
original deeply lined outer surface.
The strata which inclose this trunk
are chiefly fne-grained greenish sand
stone, indurated clays and moderately
coarse conglomerates. AS would ma
turally be expected, these strata con-
tain many vegetable remains; branch
es, rootlets, fruits and leaves are ex-
tensively inclosed." In many cases
the trunks are changed to agate and
opal, and in the cavities of partially
decayed trunks are found beautiful
crystals of quartz and calcity of differ
ent colors. Many beautiful amethysts
are found, suggesting, doubtless, the
Name to the mountain. Nothing is
more apparent than that there is an
immense sedimentary deposit OF many
different ages, of hundreds, perhaps
thousands of years each. First, upon
the granite base was made a calca-
reous deposit from 800 to 500 feet
thick. Then nature changed it's mode
of operation and vegetation sprang
up. According to the indisputable
fossil record this continued hundreds
Of years. Then stratum of sand
stone was deposited, burying the for
est, which became stone. Then anoth-
er age Of vegetation, succeeded by an
other age OF deposition. changing all
to stone. | counted an even dozen of
these vegetable strata, distinctly sep
arated by strata OF sedimentary rock.
Petrifactions are found along the
streams and upon the rougher sur
faces, over an area Of perhaps fifty
square miles.