Ruthless curiosity seekers are destroying these huge trees and logs by blasting them in pieces in search of crystals, which are found in the center of many of them, while carloads of the limbs and smaller pieces are being shipped away to be ground up for various purposes. SECOND: Believing that this wonderful deposit should be kept inviolate, that future generations may enjoy its beauties and study one of the most curious and interesting effects of nature’s forces, We, your memorialists, most respectfully request that the Commissioner of the General Land Office be directed to withdraw from entry all public lands covered by this forest until a Commission, or officer appointed by your honorable body, may investigate and report to you upon the advisability of taking this forest under the charge of the General Government and making a National Park or Reservation of it. * * * J. H. Carpenter, SPEAKER A. J. Doran, PRESIDENT Filed in the office of the Secretary of the Territory of Arizona this 11th day of February A. D. 1895, at 11 a. m. This appeal was effective and Congress appointed Prof. Lester F. Ward to visit the Petrified Forest and make a report. The report was favorable to preservation, and acting with his usual promptness, President Theodore Roosevelt issued the proclamation which created the Petrified Forest National Monument. [Illustration: Photo by C. J. Smith The surrounding country has washed away in the passing of years and leaves this mammoth cross section thirty feet or more above the plain.] This proclamation, in part, follows: BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, A PROCLAMATION. WHEREAS, it is provided by section two of the Act of Congress, approved June 8, 1906, entitled, “AN ACT FOR THE PRESERVATION OF AMERICAN ANTIQUITIES”, “THAT THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES IS HEREBY AUTHORIZED, IN HIS DISCRETION, TO DECLARE BY PUBLIC PROCLAMATION HISTORIC LANDMARKS, HISTORIC AND PREHISTORIC STRUCTURES, AND OTHER OBJECTS OF HISTORIC OR SCIENTIFIC INTEREST TO BE NATIONAL MONUMENTS * * * And, whereas the mineralized remains of Mesozoic forests, commonly known as the “Petrified Forest”, in the Territory of Arizona, situated upon the public lands owned and controlled by the United States, are of the greatest scientific interest and value, and it appears that the public good would be promoted by reserving these deposits of fossilized wood as a national monument with as much land as may seem necessary for the proper protection thereof; Now, therefore, I, Theodore Roosevelt, President of the United States of America, by virtue of the power in me vested by section two of the aforesaid Act of Congress, do hereby set aside as the Petrified Forest National Monument * * *