The Intermountain Catholic. (Salt Lake City [Utah] ;) 1899-1920, 1907-04-20
ARIZONA'S PETRIFlED FOREST.
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forest and about eight miles from the Natural
Bridge. they gave it the name of Adamana IN com
pment to Mr. Adam Hanna. upon whom fell the
honor Of conducting scientists and visitors TO the
forest. At Adamana, | stepped from the train and
with companion took the stage for the petrhcd
lands. Midway, between the station and the Nat
ural Bridge, we left the wagon and struck across
the country TO visit the ruins of Indian pueblo
and fortifcation, whose people had disappeared
many years before the Spaniards crossed the noun
tains of Arizona. Approaching the ruin we enetred
the tribal graveyard where some years ago a vast
accumulation of silver and copper ornaments, Of
agate spearheads tips of jasper and obsidian
and beautiful pottery was unearthed These were
buried with the dead whose bones had wasted to dust
many years before the white vandals had rfled the
graves. The prehistoric buildings are now a CON
fused mass of sun-dried brick and sandstone. but
when Mulhausen was here sixty years ago the d.
visionary lines of 800 houses were trace
able and few feet of a wall standing. When the
exploring party for the Pacific railroad passed here
in 1858, it was said that traces of unique picto-
graphs or symbolic writings yet remained on the
face of neighboring cliff. A little to the west of
Chalcedony park the remains of another aban-
doned village. few scattered hutS are still near
~ intact unique, ghost-like, alone unlike anything
found elsewhere upon the earth. The material en-
tering into their construction is like unto that of
which the New Jerusalem of the Apocalypse is built.
for "the building of the walls thereof of jasper
and the foundations adorned with all manner of
precious stones"
The ancient builders selected silicifed logs Of
Uniform size for their dwellings and with adobe and
precious chips of Chalcedony chinked the valuable
tImbeTs. Never did prince millionaire choose
more beautiful unperishable material for
single room Of his palace than the trunks Of
these trees which stood erect ages before the first
the setting sun.
Where Marvels Were Wrought
When l entered the wonderful forest and as
cended an elevation from which I could command
my surroundings. | experienced a feeling of disap-
pointment. From magazine articles and letters of
travellers [ was led to believe that this mystic re-
gion dream Of scenic Joy. | confess ! was
keyed up too high by these descriptions and for
time was not in accord with my environment. The
land here Is desert lifted 5000 5000 feet above
level and cut up into small mesas table levels
into many ridges buttes gulches and miniature ra-
vines carrying little vegetation. Flowing south
ward. into a winding channel, is the Lthodendron
(stone river, more correctly, creek. The valley
of this river al a certain bend widens out to the
east and west, forming alluval depression whose
banks and slopes rugged, spurred and ravined.
Here one enters the heart Of the petrifed forest
and the section known Chalcedony park. And
everything and the position of everything are
startling. On the knobs, spurs and isolated eleva
tons in the hollows. ravines and gulches. on the
surface of the lowlands piled up if skidded by
tlmbermen or nung reckessly across eacn other Ill
heaps lie the silicifed logs in greatest confusion
Everywhere with mstinted prodigality the ground
is sown with gems, with chips spnters and nodulcs
of agate, jasper and carnelian of all shapes and
sizes and displaying all the colors of the lunar rain
bow.
Buried in the sand hills rising above the valley
to the west are petriied logs squaring three and
four feet at the butts which protrude from the beet
ling bluffs. Curiously enough specimens from these
trunks are not of agate color but of soft blending
of brown and gray and absolutely opaque, while
chips from the trees in the valley translucent
and many OF them transparent glass. The state
of naturalization in which many of these valley
trees are found almost lifts them into material for
gems and precious stones, opals, jasper, amythsts
and emeralds. One of the most extraordinary fea
lures of this marvellous region is the Natural
Bridge, agatized tree, spanning miniature can
yon twenty-five feet deep and thirty feet wide. on
which a man may safely cross. The tree is in an
excellent state Of preservation and shows marks
cf sand abrasion it lies diagonally the ra-
vine and measures span of forty-four feet. From