As the young lady drove off with a gay wave of her hand and “I think you’re mean” tossed over her shoulder, the ranger turned to us with a rueful smile. “Happens every day,” he said. “You can’t blame people for wanting to take home a souvenir of the Petrified Forest, and the stuff is so pretty that kids, especially, just can’t help but want to pack it off. And, with so much of it here, it’s hard for them to understand that it would soon be gone, particularly along the roads and trails, if everyone carried off a handful or two.” We agreed with the ranger that it is hard to understand, until it is explained that such enormous quantities of petrified wood as are strewn over hundreds of acres in Petrified Forest National Monument could be entirely removed in a few years by souvenir-hungry American tourists. “But where,” we inquired, “do these roadside stands all along Highway 66 get the huge piles of petrified wood which they offer for sale? Surely the National Park Service doesn’t permit them to haul it off the monument by the truckload.” “Oh no,” grinned the ranger. “All of that ‘for-sale’ wood comes from private lands. The national monument preserves and protects only the largest and most colorful deposits of petrified wood; but it is found in many places throughout northeastern Arizona.” The impatient toot of an automobile horn informed us that we were blocking traffic, so we thanked the ranger and continued on our way. However, the interesting conversation aroused our curiosity, and at the first opportunity we returned to the Petrified Forest to learn more about the occurrence of petrified wood, and how Uncle Sam, through the National Park Service, keeps the wood from being carried off by souvenir collectors, and how the fascinating story of wood petrification is told to visitors who take a little time to visit the monument museum at the Rainbow Forest headquarters of the superintendent. This is the way the naturalists tell it. Believe it or not, it was the threat of souvenir hunters and raids on the fields of petrified wood by commercial jewelers, gem collectors, and abrasive manufacturers in the late 1890’s and early 1900’s that led thoughtful citizens of the then Arizona Territory to petition Congress for the establishment of some sort of a protectorate for the Petrified Forest. In the vicinity of the Agate Bridge and what is now known as the First Forest, enterprising abrasive makers set up a stamp mill to pulverize the 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.