Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1899-08-05
A PETRiFIED FOR EST
One Of the Great Natural Wonders of Arr
coma.
Covers One Hundred Square Miles and
is Most Interesting and
Impressive.


From the Chicago Record.
The territory of Arizona Is a vast mu-
scum of natural curiosities. including
many of the most wonderful in all the
world. 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, 800
miles square, with Flagstaff a center,
are spread out variety of wonders of
which the people of this country have little
or no conception, but if they were in Eu-
rope 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 prac-
tically 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 for
est, which covers nearly 100 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 carriage from Holbrook,
where better accommodations can be found.
The government explorers have christened
it Chalcedony Park.
The surface of the ground for miles and
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 foot deep upon the ground, and il is
easy to obtain cross sections of trees show
ing every vein and even the bark Com
paratively 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.
A bird s-eye view of the petrified forests
on sunny day sugG ests 4 gigantic kaleid-
oscope. The surface of the earth resem-
bies an infinite variety of rainbows. The
biologists say this great plain, now five
thousand feet above the sea, was once
covered by forest, which was submerged
for ages in water strongly charged with
minerals, until the fbers of the trees were
thoroughly soaked and transformed into
eternal stone. Many of the trunks are still
packed in a deposit of fine clay, which was
left by the receding waters, but the eros
ion of the wind has pulverized much of
the clay and carried it off in the air, expos
ing the secrets that nature buried under
its surface.
One great tree spans a deep gulch forty
feet wide. 1t lies where it fell centuri,s.
perhaps ages, ago, and is g most beautiful
specimen of petrifed wood. The rings and
the bark can be easily traced through the
translucent agate and it is firm enough
and strong enough to last as many CEN
turtles as it has already spent in its pecu-
liar position. 1t is undoubtedly the only
bridge of agate in the world, and alone is
worth a long journey to see.
The Indians of the southwest used to
visit the petriffed forests frequently to OBJ
tain agate for their arrow and spear heads,
and the material was scattered over the
entire continent by exchange between the
different tribes, from the Isthmus of Pana-
ma to Boring strait. The great deposit
here explains where all the arrow heads of
moss agate came from. and other weapons
and implements of similar material that
are found in the Indian mounds and graves
of the central and western states. In the
stone age the agate of the petriied forest
was the very best material that could be
obtained for both the implements of war
and peace of the aborigines. A scalplng
knife could be made very easily from one
of the chips of agate, and could DE ground
to a very fine edge. Many crystals were
used for jewelry and ornament also.