The Washington herald., 1921-08-07
By EDWARD w. COFFIN.

hitting phrase thah ihat 10 oSstIlOt inc WON
ders OF petrihed forests. For "once upon time
with them anywhere from 100000 years ago
down to the day before yesterday.
Petrhed wood preserved by Nature and Time. in
. way which man cannot initiate sntsdates the cave
man by hundreds of centuries Before there any
mammal animal life in the world these trees had
turned to stone. When dinosaurs roamsd the earth
and huge winged birds roasted mountain tops. the
stone resting underneath the ground their
feet walked on. Which Is going back long time,
and brings mankind to a realizing Of just how
little he amounts In the changing plan OF the
universe
Petri6ed wood agate is something which the
small boy is familiar with In the form OF a marble
shooter. marble shooter is pretty small piece OF
stone compared to entire forest Of petrfed tree
trunks. And when yoh put fifteen OF those forests
top OF the other, you begin have idea Of
what 100000 years do In the formation OF the
earth.
The petrihed wood. capable Of being highly pol
ished would make palaces the like of which have
been seen for the wooden be made to shine
like mirror. Is of the hardest and most wearing
substances known and has all the coors of the rain
bow due to the various chemical salts which were in
the water, mud and lava when the engulfed
by some mighty cataclysm.
60 rfelke these stone forests that many people
- never notice them in going through the national
parks, because OF the more striking wonders in
the shape of boiling springs and But perhaps
those who have been struck dumb by the appearance
Of the Grand Canyon may lay that feeling the fact
that, all unknowngly, they looking at the graves
of oldtime life which existed on earth before man was
ever thought of.
OF all the petrded forests the most remarkable
and perhaps the most beautiful those in the Yellow
stone Park in Wyoming The petrifed forest of
Arizona has the greatest reputation of the worlds
fossil forests but this is due better press agenting
rather than merit 1t presents such clear record of
the stupendous volcanic activities m the continent
building of America be seen in the Yellowstone
fossil trees. The tourist wandering through this tam
tastic region fifteen entombed forests standing
upright they grew in the volcanic deposits These
not fifteen forests distributed that many areas
but each is distinct bed of petried forest
embedded in the rock above the other as coal
seams may be found at different depths under the
same separated by Intermediary layers of rocks
Where the Yellowstone River has cut its precipitous
gorge through the mountain to depth Of 1000 feet
the cross section may be Ekened to gigantic layer
cake with the fifteen fossil forests representing the
bands OF chocolate or je1y
T>HE petried forests of the YELLOWSTONE National
Park are not only much greater In extent than
any IN the world, but the trees stand upright
in the exact positions in which they grew originally
trunks, and branches having been submerged by
the volcanic inundatons and changed into the most
beautiful and hardest of agates. Many Of the trunks
rise to height of twenty thirty feet and are covered
with hchens and blackened and discolored by frost
and rain. Millions of years old they are and of solid
stone yet cannot distinguish them at short DIS
tance from the ordinary dead stumps of the present
growing forest.
The steep slopes and cliffs of Amethyst Mountain
in the Yellowstone show these forests of standing
fossized in their greatest abundance and per
fcctiou Fortunately nearly all of the forests" are
easily accessible from the wei-traveied road which
passes the Mammoth Hot Springs. but many tourists
visit the park and scarcely notice them They are one
OF the most remarkable features of this remarkable
concerning which little information as