Bismarck daily tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, Dakota [N.D.]) 1881-1916, 1912-08-24
Local Traveller Gives DeschiD-
tiOD Of Fortified Trees
Found There
REGION in That Section IS Con.
sidered q Geographical
Paradise

Rev. J. M. Taylor. district super.
intendent of Methodist Sunday
schools, who lives in Bismarck, and
who has travelled extensively through
this sectiin of the country, has been
through the bad lands recently, and
he contributes to the Tribune an tx
cellent article on the queer lorna.
tons he found there. The following
account will be OF general interest:
We hear much of the petrifled for
ests of Arizona, and they are no
doubt of great interest and well wor-
thy of their fame and worth going
far to see, but how many know that
North Dakota has perhaps the most
interesting If not the most remarkable
petrified forests in the world.
We have travelled through much OF
the Bad Lands of western North Da-
kota and have come to believe that
in the greater part Of them there Is
little that is called O II Vas not once
wood, now petritied, though some OF
it has since been subject II the fires
that ragged in and CONSUMED those
great Ignite coal deposits. leaving
the land what 1t nov Is and SO chang
ing the appearance Of some of this
petrified wood as to make it no long
err easily recognized by inexperienc-
ed eyes.
However in many places individual
trees and in some places whole
groups, or "clumps," of these trees
have escaped these fires and may be
seen in the most perfect form and
state of petrifcation.
The most remarkable of these
groups, or forests, that we have seen,
are along the head waters and
branches of the Little Missouri River,
near the Montana line, and extend
ing into Montana. We have seen pet
rified trees along the bluffs of the
Internationally a branch, if not
the main stream, Of the upper Little
Missouri River, that measured twen-
ty-ive or thirty feet in diameter at
their base and have stood three and
four hundred feet high. They appear
to have been of the red cedar, or,
and more probably, of the seffuola
gigantea, or giant redwood species
found in California and Oregon. In
fact we have demonstrated this to
our own satisfaction, as We have found
petrifed cones of the redwood size,
and have found all about these trees
sugar pine cones, perfect specimens
Of which, as also of the redwood, we
have carried away with US, some Of
them measuring fifteen inches in
length and in a perfect state Of pet
rifiaction. 1t has always been our
experience that where you find the
sequoa you will also find the sugar
pine and the large red cedars. HaV-
ing visited all of the largest of these
trees in California and having spent
many weeks among the largest grove
of them in the world, studying them
in all their nature and environments,
we feel that we are not easily de-
ceved as to their identity, even
though so far from what has seem.
ed their native land and cline, and
though they have turned into stone
as hard as flint.
The trees of this size are only
found on the highest points buried
in or slipping from the highest bluffs
along the streams or lying prone upon
the ground on the tops OF the high
est hills. One of these trees may be
seen in the bluffs Of this Beaver
Greek in Billings County, North Da-
kota, some six miles east of the Mon
tana line, on what is known as the
"V. and O.55 ranch, operated by Lee
holland. 1t is gradually being uncov-
cred by the crumbling of the bluff,
and lies parallel with 1t some three
hundred feet or more above the bed
Of the creek. 1t was hollow, no
doubt, when it fell, for many feet
above the root, and petriied perfect
ly, forming into a sort of sandstone,
with here and there some of that
bone-like, or finty, even crystalline
hardness and c%learness, preserving
the grain and all the knots and knars
and other formations of the tree as
perfectly as when it stood or fell a
giant O the forest in some far dist
ant and different age from this. One
half of the hollow, or side of the
tree, has split off and slid down the
bluff leaving the great carcass.like
hollow, some twenty-five ir thirty
feet in diameter, exposed; into which
at the openings and "knot holes"
wild animals have entered and made
their dens and birds have built their
nests. About one hundred and fifty
feet Of the huge trunk is exposed and
at the smaller end it is not less than
twelve or fifteen feet in diameter.
1t is broken, as are all these trees,
wherever you find them, into about
equal lengths, none Of the prices be-
ing over ten or twelve feet in length
and with ends as square and smooth
as il they had been sawed off by a
skilfull sawyer. At or near the base
of this tree are some smaller trees
which have fallen IN different direc-
tiOno on6 hovo roLor IN ohor% Tho