Bisbee daily review. [volume] (Bisbee, Ariz.) 1901-1971, 1908-08-28
GREAT PETR|FED FOREST OF ARIZONA
ONE OF THE WORLDS WONDER SIGHTS

approximately by million years the
age of the smallest chip of these tree
trunks of agate that lie neglected upon
the Arizona desert. These were cast
in a mould that was formed before the
Alps, the Himalayas or the Rockies
were reared, and when creation was
still unfinished
In all the world, there are no OBJ
jects that begin to compare with these
petrified trees in antiquity-for brief
indeed is the span of years that meas
ures the age of any relics left by man
King Arthur is little more than leg
endary figure, his personality lost IN
! the mists of the past, that, after all,
have been gathering for only a few
hundred years. Achilles, Hector,
Priam and all the heroes of the Tro-
janWar are but spectral shadows; and
even Homer, to whom we owe their
very names, is dubious parsonage
that some say never existed. The
builders of the pyramids, the chiseler
of the Sphinx. the Shepherd Kings,
and all the mummied dynasties Of
Egypt-these are but gaostly shadows
of an almost forgotten past. OF the
unnumbered millions of the An
cients," only Cleopatra Queen Esther
and Helen of Troy seem real-for the
vision OF a fair and perfect woman is
immortal.
In the First and Second Forests is
seen the greatest variety of form and
coIoring. combined with the greatest
diversity Of scenery-the buttes and
rock formations being chisled into
strange and fantastic forms. Here are
Of nh n l1EnnT
and agate. of every shade and color
thfr the Master Painter ever mixed
upon the palette of the universe.
Some OF the petriications are enor-
nous tree trunks, five or six feet in
diameter at the base, and more than
100 feet in length. None are entire,
being broken INTO sctions of varying
length by transverse fractures. When
| one OF the larger TRUNKS is broken
open. it is often found to be hollow,
with the interior surface thickly en-
Icrusted with crystals of smoky topaz,
of royal purple amethyst. or transDa-
| rent quartz, over many hundreds OF
acres of the desert, the ground is lit
tered with chips such as were never
seen at any other wood pile. These
are the fragments of hundreds Of bro
/
! the relentless AK of Time. that even
Iadamant cannot dull or defect, Ey-
cry chip is a gem, worthy of the lap
idary's painstaking art. Here one
may gather from the ground the most
ldelicate moss agates, and caips Of
/ jasper and agate Of purple, blue, o.
lange, vermillion, crimson, mauye. gar
net, voalet, velvet-black and snowy
white So thickly is the ground COW
cred with uncut gems that ones shoes
are likely to be cut into ribbons, and
/ the eye becomes surfeited and weary
of the iawless riot of beauty and color.
The Petrified Forest is devoid of
Imposing features such as character
| ize the Grand Canyon and many otaer
famous scenic wonderlands of the
Southwest that challenge the wonder
and admiration of the most untnink-
| ing BY their sublimity and grandeur.
Il must be studied in detail rather
than as a whole. and the imagination
must be summoned TO enable one 10
picture what it has been, as well as
what it is. To appreciate the wonder
OF it, one must conceive Of these dead
imasses of hardest rock as upright
moIarchs of the forest covered with
foliage that sWayed and muTmured IN
the passing breeze. He must reIGc:1s-
Der that the vast semi-desert, that
stretches for a thousand miles TO the
east, and almost another thousand
miles to the west. then aad no exist
epce. for this was in the uopic spring
time of world that is now old. shriy-
eied. frost bitten and decayed. The
Rockies had not yet been reared. and
the Grand Canyon had not been out
iine6; and what is now the last stand
OF tie desert" was one of earth's
greenest garden spots, with strange
reptilian creatures gliding through
Then came an universal cataclysm
--or maybe II would be better TO say
tiat the infant world was convulsed
with colo, the first Of many pains thar
have scanned and wrinkled its coun-
tenance unuI the smile of childish In
nocence has been banished for the
1 deepening frown OF austerity and ex-
/ lperience. The giant trees whose
I trunks and branches, whose very bark.