_PETRIFIED FOREST National Monument, Arizona_ Cover Illustration: _This is “Old Faithful”. Just at the top of the hill it lies in stark grandeur._ _DESCRIPTIVE—HISTORICAL—ILLUSTRATED_ _By DAMA MARGARET SMITH_ COPYRIGHT 1930 Petrified Forest National Monument, Arizona _By Dama Margaret Smith_ The Petrified Forest In Arizona, that land of mystic beauties and many wonders, lies a great tract of land that, once upon a time, was covered with waters of the sea. How many centuries ago the ocean waves sparkled and rippled over what is now the desert, no one can definitely say. But from the nature of the stratum is which great logs are embedded, and the fossilized reptiles found, it is known that they were entombed during the Triassic age, many millions of years ago. Petrified logs are found over a wide area, more than a hundred square miles being covered with varying amounts of the “stone” trees. This fossilized “forest” is greater in area, more highly colored, and contains more petrified wood than any like deposit in the world. Many visitors who have heard of the “forest” drive through miles of the Reservation and ask at the Museum where they can find the Petrified Forest. Inquiry discloses that they expected to find an area of standing trees, trunks merely turned to stone, branches and all. Perhaps they have seen one or more such trunks in Yellowstone National Park and think to find hundreds of them here. Yet, when they learn the story of these fallen monarchs, and catch a glimpse of the dazzling beauties of agate and carnelian, jasper and onyx, no signs of disappointment are seen. Let the visitor but leave his car to view the logs, and step by step he is led on by here a gleaming fragment of carnelian, and there the soft sheen of jasper and topaz. It is like the carpet of Fairyland.