[photo at right: Jerome, Arizona, December 1942, Norman Rhoads Garrett, F.R.P.S.]
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| Arizona Highways
Magazine
[photo at right: Jerome, Arizona, December 1942, Norman Rhoads Garrett, F.R.P.S.] Go to: AzHwys |
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| The
Many Petrified Forests
Soon after construction of the Atlantic and Pacific Railroad (later ATSF, BNSF) across northern Arizona from 1881-1883, tourists discovered the vast expanse of petrified logs on both sides of the tracks. They gathered souvenirs, while others carted away huge logs. Commercial jewelers and abrasive manufactures exploited the mining potential of the agate and jasper in the 1890s. "In the vicinity of Agate Bridge and what is now known as the Jasper Forest, enterprising abrasive makers set up a stamp mill to pulverize great blocks of petrified wood which they found there. Here, also, many of the logs were dynamited in the search for quartz and amethyst crystals which some of them contained." [Harold J. Broderick, Agatized Rainbows, 1951] Concerned residents of Arizona Territory petitioned Congress which passed the Antiquities Act. The law enabled President Theodore Roosevelt to establish Petrified Forest National Monument December 8, 1906 by executive order. The area set aside in 1906 totaled 60,776 acres, much smaller than today's park. Tourists continued to disembark Santa Fe trains at Adamana and ride a short distance to view five "forests" of fallen trees turned to stone. From south to north, they were the Rainbow Forest, Crystal Forest, Jasper Forest, Blue Forest (Blue Mesa) and far to the north of the railroad, the Black Forest. The three forests on the south were now protected from disturbance, and they were referred to as the "First Forest," "Second Forest," and "Third Forest," the latter situated at the south end of the Monument. Until 1932 the National Monument was located entirely south of Adamana, and the National Old Trails Road (later US Highway 70, now US 180) traversed the southwest corner. That year, 53,300 acres of the Painted Desert extending past Adamana and north of Route 66 were added to the National Monument. In 1962 the National Monument became a National Park. Two wilderness areas inside park boundaries, totaling more than 50,000 acres, were designated by Congress in 1970, among the first wilderness areas administered by the Park Service. |
(National Park Service photo) The National Park really preserves several different creations of man and nature: petrified wood, The Painted Desert, ancient Native American ruins, plants, animals, fossils of extinct species, remains of Route 66 and historic structures. In this photo the blue, white, brown and purple clay hills of the Painted Desert preside over a foreground littered with petrified wood. |
This postcard, published by Holbrook Drug Co. around 1910 shows petrified logs in the foreground with clay hills of the Painted Desert formation in the background. |
"Having a fine trip," writes an early visitor who mailed this postcard from Barstow in 1906. |
| Rainbow
Forest Museum
An Administration Building and visitor center was constructed in 1931 just inside the south entrance to Petrified Forest National Monument, before the area under National Park Service supervision was expanded to the north to include part of the Painted Desert. Painted Desert Visitor Center was constructed at the north entrance from January 1961 to July 1962 as one of the ambitious Mission 66 improvements to national parks and monuments all over the country. Petrified Forest headquarters was moved from Rainbow Forest to the new $1.46 million Painted Desert facility in the late summer of 1962. That December, Petrified Forest was upgraded to become the country's 31st. National Park. Behind Rainbow Forest Museum is one of the more compact deposits of some of the largest and most beautiful specimens of petrified wood. Giant Logs Trail begins at the rear of the building and then returns there by a third of a mile paved loop. Across the parking lot from the museum is a building built in 1929 as Rainbow Forest Lodge. Today it is a Fred Harvey store. The Fred Harvey concession in the northern portion of the park moved from Painted Desert Inn about a mile south to a new building in the Painted Desert complex in 1963. Rainbow Forest Museum was renovated in 2005 to add new exhibits and a small theater. |
Rainbow Forest Museum in 2005. |
Petrified Forest Administration Building in 1939. It became Rainbow Forest Museum after administrative offices moved to newly built Painted Desert Visitor Center in 1962. |
Nez by the log called "Old Faithfull," which can be seen along Giant Logs Trail just behind Rainbow Forest Museum. This postcard view is credited to J. R. Willis. |
| Agate
Bridge
"Centuries of scouring floodwaters washed out the arroyo, or gully, beneath this 110-foot (34 meter) petrified log. The stone log, harder than the sandstone around it, resisted erosion and remained suspended as the softer rock beneath it washed away." * * * "Conservationists felt this ages-old natural bridge needed architectural support and in 1911 erected masonry pillars beneath the log. In 1917 the present concrete span replaced the masonry work. "Current National Park Service philosophy allows the natural forces that create unusual features to continue. If discovered today, Agate Bridge would be left in its natural state. Eventually the natural forces that created Agate Bridge will cause it to fall with or without its supports. For your safety, and to help preserve the petrified log, please stay off the bridge." [from the NPS interpretive sign at the site] In the early days the log was called Natural Bridge or Petrified Bridge. Three species of trees have turned to gem stone in Petrified Forest, the most common being an Araucarian Pine related to trees that still grow in the southern hemisphere. Over millions of years, mineralized water replaced the cellulose fiber and lignen in a process that preserved some of the structure of tree rings and grain. Most of the resulting rock is silica in a non-crystalline form, colored by other minerals. Voids in the logs are often filled with crystals of quartz and amethyst. The silica can be described as a variegated, translucent chalcedony called agate. Other opaque forms are called jasper. |
Agate Bridge in September 2005 |
Agate Bridge supported by masonry pillars about 1912, at a time when tourists felt they had to risk permanent injury by sitting or walking on the span to have their picture taken. |
Agate Bridge after the concrete beam was installed. |
| Painted
Desert Inn
The building which is today Painted Desert Inn was originally constructed as the "Stone Tree House" in 1924 by Herbert David Lore. Walls of the two-story private guest lodge were made of fragments of petrified wood. Cool porches on the north side overlooked the beautiful painted desert. Six guestrooms were available for $2-$4 a night. By 1932 it was called the Painted Desert Inn and was located only a mile north of Route 66 which had been paved with asphalt from Flagstaff to Winslow, offered a wide gravel surface from Winslow to Petrified Forest and a softer dirt roadway to the east. Four years later, Lore sold his inn to the National Park Service, along with four sections of land, for $59,400. Civilian Conservation Corps workers, using plans prepared by NPS architect Lyle E. Bennett, set about remodeling and refurbishing Painted Desert Inn. Following a southwestern pueblo style, they replaced roofing beams with native aspen and pine poles, created hand-made light fixtures, wooden furniture decorated with Native American designs and painted skylight panels based on prehistoric native designs. The petrified wood stones in the walls were covered over with stucco. The building reopened July 4, 1940 as an Edward McGrath concession but had to close in October 1942 as the war curtailed travel. McGrath reopend Painted Desert Inn again on April 3, 1947 and transferred the concession to the famous Fred Harvey Company the same year. |
Painted Desert Inn undergoing restoration in September, 2005. |
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Company architect and interior designer Mary Jane Colter began a remodel
in December 1947 that included installation of large picture windows, and
dining room and lunch room murals by the renowned Hopi artist Fred Kabotie.
When it closed again in 1963, the building had seriously deteriorated due to the shifting expansive clays under its foundation. The Park Service scheduled demolition in 1975. A campaign to save the building led by local residents in nearby Holbrook saved the building and it reopened on a limited basis in 1976 as a Bicentennial Travel Center. In 1987 it was listed as a National Historic Landmark. A full restoration was completed in 2005. 
Fred Harvey postcard from about 1948 shows the Inn after the Colter remodel. The
Painted Desert
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Stone Tree House as seen from the NE, showing the screened porch that overlooked the Painted Desert. This is a Frasher's Foto postcard from about 1934. 
Another postcard from around 1948 shows both the north and south facades, and how to get there from Route 66. The 1947 remodel removed the screen porch, added extra rooms and a flat roof and covered the petrified wood walls with stucco to achieve a pueblo style. |
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