Holbrook argus., 1912-07-09
WONDERFUL PETRIFIED
 FORESTS IN ARIZONA


 the world, the Petrified Forest. Ip Apache county, Arizona, are acres and acres ot petrified wood varying in size from the end of your finger to trunks of trees more than ten f. ct in diameter and over POO feet in length. The forest is divided into five distinct tracts, all easily accessi ble from Adamana, Sta ton on the Santa Fe Railroad. The first, or the Rainbow forest, is dist ant 4bout five miles and covers about four thousand acres. Here on sees the bro- ken trunks of trees tossed about hap hazard in lengths of some two to four feet. The wood has every Colcr of the rainbow. It is in appearenc9 much like flint. Here huge log juts out over the traveller and looks much-lilie d caunon. so much so, that some one has Iam-d it "Dewey's Cannon" Another forma- tion, some fifty feet high, has been .lamed he '.Eigle's Nest from the fac hat for four sur cessive years d pair cf bald eagels built their nest on the top, which is inaccessible to man or beast.
 The trunks of the trees seem to have washed here, as in the bed of an ancien, river, and to have been covered b. sand and mud. This covering in tint has changed to sand rock and the en- tire country around has been elevated and the clements have worn away the soft earth under this layer and allowed the petritied tree trunks in the sand
 ok 10 break off into leigt> of mo-ilj bout three feet h many instance these pieces have fallen down into washed places which are more than one hundred feet below the balance of he trees and rocks. In oi her instance hey are left projecring from the san" rock much like guns from fort. slr this first forest is the "Naturai Bridge" which is petrified log lying across revine some sixty or more feet in width and about the same in depth, This trunk, as measured by the write IS one hundred and eight feet long anu about five feet in diameter. Here the guide has his hands full in piloting the timid tourists oyer the bridge, for no one has seen the forest who has. no crossed the "Bridge" From this foresl are taken most of the specimens thal are so much treasured by the visitors Here your likely to meet people from all parts of the world-noted sci enIists, coming for knowledge; the ubiquitous 'Globe Trotter," who comes only to be able to say he has seen the '.Forest;'' the school "Marm" with her little nole book and pencil; the rail road man and his family on their an nual vacation trip; have even met the eastern farmer who wall ed the entire distance that he might see the "World's s Worde as he expressed it to me.
 The second forest is about three miles south of the first. In it the trees are much more intact and while cracked across in lengths much like timber sawed into ''single belts,'' they are 1y- ing pieces. Two immense trees lying side by side, "rhe Twin Sisters, are over two hundred feet in length and about four feet in diameter. One place in this forest just like an eastern chip yaId where wood had been chopped and chips were thick on the ground The colorlng here is much the same as the first.In area it has about two thou sand acres.
 Passing south west about five miles. one reaches the third forest. Here the trees are much better preserved as to being in full lengths. Many of the trunks are from one hundred up to oue, which by actual measurements, was al most four hundred feet i'll length. The coloring in this is not so bright as ill the first. The wood has more the ap- pearauce of agate with some rystals mixed.
 During the past year John Muir dis covered two new forests to the north and east of the others that had not been known prior to his writings. They fill III d QcOlICo hAooluB hlhh lh scientific knowledge regarding the Electrified Forests"
 The ''North Sigillaria Forests" is by far the most interesting, lying nine miles to north of Adamana, and con tains many finely preserved speciments of the carboniferous period, some of the tree trunks still standing as they grew. The general scenery here IS, to say the least, very peculiar and picturesque. and might almost say gruesome. The trees almost lack any of the fancy or variegated colors seen in some of the other forests.
 These trees, standing as they grew, show that the changes which have talk en place in them and caused petrifac-