r~ HIGHll.JAVS JULY 1958 FORTY CENTS

In This Issue: PETRIFIED FOREST and PAINTED DESERT PETRIFIED

VOL. XXXIV NO. 7 JULY 1958 FOREST RAYMOND CARLSON, Editor GEORGE M. A VEY, Art E ditor In that intermixture of anthropology, archeology, JAMES E. STEVENS, Business Manager geology, biology, mineralogy, astronomy, history, antiq­ LEGEND uity, geography, topography, poetry, distance, vastness, emptiness, scenery, sunshine and starlight that make up T r-rn Y uccA Mon-r AND THE FLOWER 2 this wonderland we call Arizona the most strangely beau­ D ESC RIPTIO N OF ONE OF OLD i\lloTH ER N _• \TURE's STR ANG EST LOVE AFFAIRS. tiful and weirdly fantastic is that area known, and with poetic appropriateness, as Petrified Forest. GEOLOGY OF TH E PAINTED D ESERT (Whew! We really drooled a bib full that time!) AN D THE PETRIFIED FoRLcS T 7 A LEARNED DI SCUSS ION OF FORCES As of this moment, the official name of this part of \Vl-I ICH MOULDED TI-IE LOVELY LAND. our state is Petrified Forest National Monument. The THE ENCHA;\TF!) S1·0NF FOREST learned ladies and gentlemen of Congress, and with the A N INVITATIO N TO \l!S IT ONE OF President's ready consent and bold signature, ha ve passed ]~'. Aiffl-I 'S MOST FASCINATING AREAS. a law changing the i\!Ionument to Petrified Forest Nation­ LAST STAN D OF Tiff G,wu:s:n SLOTH al Park with a provision that certain private lands in the CAVE IN LOWER GRAND CANYON '~'AS area be acquired by the Government. Acquisition of these HAUNT OF PREHI STORIC ANIMALS. private lands is going forward with haste and ,1 ·ith the DEEP IN THF H FART OF SYCAiVlORE CANYON 34 expenditure of not inconsiderable monies; so it is possible ]sor.ATE D WILDER NESS EXPANSE IS that when you read this Arizona will have one less Na­ i\TrR •\CTION FOR THE VENT URESOME. tional Monument but one more National Parle ERNEST W. McFARLAND You might ask, as we have asked, \\'hy a Monu­ Governor of Arizona ment or Park; vVhat's the difference? A Nati'onal {Vlonu­ ARTZONA HIGHWAY COMMISSION ment, in general terms, is a protected area containing one Wm. P. Copple, Chairman . Yuma item of national interest ( examples: Tonto, Saguaro, L. F. Quinn, Vice-Chairman . Miami Tumacacori, Montezuma Castle, Rainbow Bridge). A Frank L. Christensen, Member Flagstaff National Park is a protected and preserved area containing 1Vlilron L. Reay, i\ lernber ...... Safford specific items of national interest, but also possessed of John J. Bugg: Member . . . . . Florence vVrn . E. vVilley, State Hwy. Engineer ...... Phoenix scenic beauty of national and 7..uorld reno--wn and reputa­ Justin Herman, Secretary ...... Phoenix tion ( examples: Grand Canyon, Zion, Bryce). (The good gentlemen of the National Park Service A1u::60NA H1GI-IWAYS is published monthly by the Arizona Highway may blanch at such a pedestrian explanation, but let it Department a few miles north of the confluence of the Gila and Salt in Arizona. Address: ARIZONA HIGHW AYS, Phoenix, Arizona. be said, with all enthusiasm, that Petrified Forest has all $3.50 per year in U.S. and possessions; $4-50 elsewhere; 40 cents the ingredients of specific interest and incomparable each. Entered as second-class matter Nov. 5, 1941 at Post Office in scenery to be worthy of the name "National Park" and Phoenix, under Act of March 3, 1879 . Copyrighted, 1958, by the Natio11al P::irk it w ill soon be.) Arizona Highway Department. This month we take you on a journey to Petrified FRONT COVER Forest. We hope you find the journey both pleasant and "GlANT TURNED TO STONE" BY CARLOS ELMER. 4x5 educational, and we hope you'll agree with us th::it Amer­ Burke & James Press camera; Ektachrome; f.16 at 1/ 1oth sec.; ica's newest National Park is something to see and to Goertz Aerotat 6" lens; August, bright sunlight; Meter reading 250-400 foot candles. ASA 12. Scene: about two hundred feet remember. ... R.C. from Monument headquarters and i\lluseum Building, Petrified Forest National Monument, Arizona, near Holbrook. This is Old Faithful petrified log, which is easily the most famous piece of petrified wood in the world. Old Faithful log must rank with the leaders as one of America's most photographed natural wonders. COLOR CLASSICS FROM ARIZONA HIGHWAYS The huge root structure, shown here, towers about 9 feet in height, and the log, itself, measure about 50 feet in length. The experience This Issue of seein g this huge stone tree makes one grateful that such natural 35 mm. slides in 2" 'l'llOrtnts, 1 to 15 slides, 40¢ each; marvels have been preserved for the enjoyment of all. 16 to 49 slides, 35q, each; 50 or 711ore, 3 for $1.00. OPPOSITE PAGE PF-26 Giant Turned to Stone, cov. 1; PF-27 Polished "POLISHED STONE-ONCE LIVING WOOD" BY JOSEF Stone- Once Li,·ing vVood, cov. 2; PF-27 A Polished MUENCH. 4x5 Speed Graphic camera; daylight Ektachrome; Stone-Once LiYing Wood, cov. 2; PF-28 E rosion in f.29 at 1/ 2 sec.; 5" Tessar lens; June. Both of these pictures were Color, cov. 3; PF-29 In the Heart of Petrified Forest, cov. taken inside the Museum at the Rainbow Forest in the Petrified 4; PF-30 Rainbow Colors in Stone, p. 17; PF-, 1 In Blue Forest National Monument. They arc polished pieces showing the Forest of Petrified Forest, p. 18; PF-p The F,~llcn Mon­ beautiful colors and rhc way in w hich the material takes a high arch, p. 19; PF-33 Agate House- Petrified Forest, p. 19; polish after cutting. Petrified wood, found in a number of places PF-34 Panorama- Painted Desert, center spre,1d; PF-,, in Arizona, is avidly sought by collectors. Petrified wood, w hen Landscape of Shimmering Color, p. 22; PF-,6 Arch ~f cut and polished, is used in many striking ways for jewelry, book­ Petrified vVood, p. 22; PF-37 vVildcrness ·of Color­ ends, etc. Collecting of specimens in the National Monument is Painted Desert, p. 23; PF -38 Walls of the Blue Forest, p. 2+ prohibited.

~ 115 ~~

PAGE ONE • ARLZON A HlGH\VAYS • JULY 1958 Closeup, Maj.ave Yucca blossom

1\!lojave Yucca m Bloom

Yucca schidegra (mohavensis) flower clusters. Lighting the hills and canyons of the coastal regions is the shimmering beauty of fifteen foot flO\ver spikes of the Candles of God. A tourist might well hazard the guess that the yucca is some kind of cactus. They are often found growing side by side and, to the non-botanist, there might seem to be a certain similarity in appearance. Certain it is that the rapier-like leaves of the yucca are as protective in their sharpness as are the thorns of the cactus. And yet, ower strangely, the naturalist knows the yucca as a lily, a Mature fruit, Joshua Tree member of the g-reat order of Liliaceae; a brother under the ski n to the ~ore tender and succulent garden forms 1110th larvae near mature stage of lilies with which we all are familiar. This kinship is BY VESTA M. AND RALPH D. CORNELL recoQ·n izable in the individual flowers of the yucca and PHOTOGRAPHS BY RALPH D. CORNELL it is -doubtless to this kinship that we owe the ethereal quality of the tall blooming tarers_ which reach toward n the far-flung distances of the Ameri­ from early March to late autumn. Equally prominent in heaven out of a harsh and forb1ddmg background. can Southwest there are many natural interest is the life cycle of the yuccas, for therein lies a Yucca flowers are white or shaded with cream, red phenomena that are unique and of tale of wondrous cooperation between the plant world or violet, usually cup shaped or somewhat flattened into intriguing interest to casual observer and the insect world. saucer-like form. Their petals are thick and of an almost and experienced naturalist alike. Let There are some thirty-odd varieties of yucca native alabaster translucency. They grow, tightly clustered, the passerby but stop to observe al­ to the United States and over half of that number occur along a heavy flower stalk which is generally ere_ct, with most anywhere and he will find some naturally in the Southwest. They vary greatly in form, the individual blossoms .pendulous. However, 111 some aspect of the !ntricate processes by which life in those size and appearance. In the high deserts are the grotesque varieties, just the opposite occurs for both stem and areas can survive. figures of the Joshua Trees, with their "gaunt, stiff arms blossoms. The flowers open at night, like white chalices, Conspicuous in the panoramic scenes of the South­ propping the star-sagged sky." In the low, dry deserts but do not close during the day as do so many of the west are the y uccas, always arresting in form, especially are less conspicuous species which are little more th:111 nocturnal blooms. They have a sweet and penetrating beautiful during their blooming season which extends rosettes of harsh needle-like leaves ,vith short-stemmed fragrance which is sometimes too strong for human pleas-

PACE T\VO • ARI ZO NA H J(;JJ WAYS • DRAWINGS OF PRONUBA Y UCCASELLA ARE COPIES FROM PLATES IN THE MISSOU RI BOTAN ICAL GARDEN'S 3nD AN N UAL REPORT, P UBLISHED IN 1892. ORIGIN AL DRA,VINGS MADE BY C. V. RILEY, PH.D. Arriving on the scene with this unfailing timeliness, One cannot find a mature pod of yucca without ure but which seems to be attractive to certain kinds the mother moth goes busily from flower to flow er. She encountering and obser ving either the larvae o r their tell­ of moths. gathers pollen with her front legs and tentacles, carefully tale excavations and castings, for there w ould be no yucca When these plants of the Western Hemisphere are rolling it into a tiny ball until it attains about three times seedpods unless t he flower had first been pollinated by the transplanted to European gardens o r to other sections the size of her ow n h ead. She holds this pollen ball firmly mother moth. of the world w here they do not occur naturally, they against her breast as she flies from fl ower to flower. Arriv­ W hen the larvae have eaten their way to maturity may flourish and flower profusely but they do not form ing at a different blossom than t hat from w hich the pollen and through the seed vessel, and when the insides of t he fruit. To obtain fertile seeds it is necessary to hand-polli­ was gathered, she pierces the new flower ovary with her pod are becoming dry and unpalatable anyway, that inner nate the individual blossoms. Why should this be? In oviposter and deposits four or five tiny eggs at the base urge w hich baffles all human understanding guides the solving the riddle, scientific observation has established of the pistil. T hen she thrusts the ball of pollen which she tiny yucca dwellers to the periphery of the fruit. T here that the key to the y ucca's fecundity is a tiny w hite moth has been carefully protecting, down i nto the stigmatic they cut their way through the outer membrane and with the formidable name of Pronuba Yuccasella. This tube of the flower in such a manner as to brush its sides drop lightly to the g round, cur ling into tight little balls diminutive moth, not present in other lands to w hich the with the pollen, thus i nsuring its fertilization. So it i s as they fall. T hey t hen go into the soil at.t he base of the yucca has been introduced, is the missing factor necessary that the mother moth lays her eggs in the ovary of the plant and pupate. T hat is, they enter into another stage to the life cycle of the plant. flower in order that her eggs may be sustained and pro­ of life w hich intervenes between the larvae form and Reciprocally, the yucca is equally necessary to the tected from the heat and the rains. There they stay until the winged or perfected insect form. Most of us are life cycle of the moth, as we shall see. E ach is dependent, the time comes for them to hatch into the tiny larvae familiar w ith some of the different types of cocoons and one upon the other, for the perpetuation of its kind. And which constitute the second stage of the life c ycle of the pupae within which the marvel of metamorphosis takes into a shimmering View of Yucca fio wer with near petals removed, show­ we wonder, has it always been so, or, in the dim past, was insect. Again nature's r hythms of growth are ,vell syn­ place to change a repugnant little grub ing normal position of Y ucca m oth depositing eggs in the each able to exist independently, and then, as changes chronized, for the fl ower ovary is small and underdevel­ insect capable of flight. cted in the earth ovary of the Yucca fiower came, did each fi nd its life needs met by the o ther and oped at the time the eggs are deposited in it, too small The pupae of the moths lie prote give up a precarious independence to this perfect adapta­ to contain more than the tiny eggs. But the fertilized until the seasons have rolled around and again the yuccas tion? Suffice it to say, that, at present, the yucca would yucca parts grow rapidly. A large seedpod is developed are ready to send forth their heraldry of bloom. T hen not produce seeds w ere it not for the moth, because for the hungry little w orms by the time the larvae emerge the fragile, gossamer-winged moths break through their the flower-parts of the yucca blossoms are so constructed from their egg case and are ready to go to work. chrysalises to seek the receptive blossoms within w hich that it is physically impossible for the pollen of t he flower Once they are hatched, the fruit maggots start to to start anew another l ife cycle of progeny ; and the to reach its stigma w ithout special help. It must d epend eat within the cool, green seed receptacles of the yucca miracle of !ife goes on. upon external means, such as that p rovided b y the m oth, and their grow th keeps pace with that of the plant. T he One wonders to w hat purpose this interesting dual for the transfer of its pollen. Coincidentally, the moth delicate balance of life never falters. The larvae of the life cy cle is lived from y ear to y ear. Is it a closed cycle, finds in the yucca blooms, the perfect i ncubation medium moth consume the seeds of the yucca, but never to the unrelated t o other lives that impinge upon it, or is it an for its eggs and food supply for its l arvae. (Until very point of depletion. When the busy little grubs have instance w hich typifies the interdependence of all life recently it has been believed that all yuccas w ere depend­ satiated their appetites a nd reached their growth limit, forms? There seems to be more of reason in nature's Pronuba Y uccasella m oth ent exclusively upon this moth for fertilization. Recent there still are uneaten s eeds. Since each grub consumes plan than mere self-sufficiency . Perhaps it is an attestation scientific research has disclosed, however, that some spe­ an a verage of about twenty of them a nd since there are to the fact that all forms of !ife a re under the c ontrol of cies of yucca apparently can b e fertilized without the only 4 or 5 worms per pod, the balance always is in favor one basic principle of life and by that principle are moth but even these seem to "employ" the moth in addi­ of a seed surplus for y ucca reproduction. brought into cooperation. tioi1 to any other insect aid.) Flowers usually m ake themselves alluring to insects by the secretion of n ectars, by the development of o dors pleasing to insects, by the formation of showy and attrac- . tive parts, and by the development of flower clusters which make it easy for insects to sample the blossoms without traveling too far from flower to fl ower. Although the y ucca blossoms provide all these lures, apparently not all are needed to entice the moth. It is believed that the moth does not take food of any kind during t his phase Sideview, Pronuba Y uccasella m oth of its life cycle, so that nectar would not appeal as food. T he significant attraction may be only that of sight or odor. T he c hief function of w hite in flowers seems to be to make t hem more easily apparent to insects, partic­ ularly to those w hich fly by night. All y ucca blossoms being w hite, or nearly so, it is not surprising t hat the yucca moth is active only at night. N or i s it s urprising that it is the fem ale moth w hich is attracted, since it is her role t o assure life for h er p rogeny . A part of the remarkable sy nchronization i s t he tim­ ing. T he mother moth appears at the proper season, w hen the y ucca blossoms have opened and are receptive to pollen. This is particularly impressive w hen it is realized that each variety of yucca blossoms at its own special time, from as early a s March to as late as a utumn. Per­ haps the timing is a matter of temperature control w hi ch Female moth zn act of gathering pollen affects both the plants and the insects. But, w henever the T he Joshua T ree (Yucca blooming season begins, there is t he moth ready for its brevifolia) is tallest, part in the wonderful process of nature. If the moths should m ost tree-like Y ucca. not appear, no fruit would set from that y ear 's flowers.

PAG E J• O UR • ARIZONA H I GHWAYS • J ULY 1958 BY MATT vV ALTON Professor of Geology, Yale University

PHOTOGRAPHS BY JOSEF ~lUEXCH

y grandfather visited Arizona in the Painted Desert is notable for its strong and subtly varied 188o's and summarized his impres­ colors. Interspersed ,\·ith the shale there are layers of sions with the statement, which I sandstone and conglomerate. Altogether this sequence -~~ doubt was original, that "Arizona of shale ,\·ith interbedded sandstone and conglomerate has more rivers for less water, more forms a distinctive layer as much as a thousand feet thick q cows for less milk, and you can look in the complete sequence of rock strata that underlies farther and see less than any place northern Arizona. It is called the "Chinle formation" else in the whole danged world!" How clearly this simply because this distinctive sequence is well-exposed sho\l·s that meaning as ,vell as beauty is in the eyes of in the vicinity of the village of Chinle near Canyon De the observer, for I ·would not question my grandfather's Chelly. judgment on cows and water, but as I return to Arizona In one sense the origin of the Chinle formation is to look at this land through the eyes of the geologist, extraordinarily humble and prosaic. Shale is a rock pro­ I find that there are few places in this world where you duced by the compaction of mud and silt under pressure, can look farther and see more. and so the Chinle formation is to begin with nothing The desolation and the very rawness of Arizona's more than an accumulation of mud and silt along ·with deep-scarred canyons lay bare the rib-rocks of its under­ a li ttle sand and gravel. But this bald statement of the lying geologic structure. This land, with its bare bones humble character of the Chinle rocks raises some fascinat­ thus exposed, has a deeper meaning than could be con­ ing questions. How, we must ask, could it come about ve_\~e d by mere opulence of superficial detail. For as the that layer upon layer of mud and sand approaching a eye sweeps across our landscape, even the eye untrained thousand feet in thickness could have been spread out in geology, one cannot escape, at least subconsciously, over much of northern Arizona and parts of Utah, Colo­ some sense of an underlying architecture-of a dynamics rado, and New Mexico where now there is a high and and a principle of organization that is blurred and lost arid plateau? How came this deposit to be buried and in the softer outlines of more fertile landscapes. compacted under thousands of feet of additional sedi­ The Painted Desert is a landscape of destruction, a ment, then elevated a mile or so above sea level, and final­ land where the dry dust drifts with the wind, where ly resurrected by erosion to crop out, as it now does, pelting rains of the infrequent but sometimes violent in the valley of the Little Colorado:i How does it happen storms of the plateau country beat relentlessly on crum­ to contain the bones and footprints of dinosaurs and other hlin~· shales and sandstones, where the impact of each creatures of the distant past and a forest turned to stone? raindrop is printed in bare earth, where mud-laden rain­ Over what span of time did the complex events sug­ drops coalesce to run chocolate-thick in sudden streams, gested by these questions take place:i a land carved into a bewildering waste of washes and At the very heart of the science of geology is the arroyos separated by knife-sharp ridges and weirdly idea that the present is the key to the past, and that ques­ etched mesas. Such a land is called a "badland," and the tions like these may be answered by finding out under Painted Desert is specifically and technically a badland what conditions extensive deposits of mud and silt are developed by erosion in an area where a stratum of rock being laid down today in various parts of the world. l-:n0\n1 as the Chinle formation: crops out. From an insight into the dynamics of the present, we Paradoxically, then, the Painted Desert is constantly may recreate in the scientific imagination a picture of being recreated in its own destruction. It is the landscape the past. Obviously the Chinle formation was not laid presented by the Chinle formation in th.e process of ero­ down on a high and arid plateau in its present situation, sion. Its face is always new. No stable soil surface man­ for high plateaus every,\ here and by their very nature tles the variegated colors of the raw rock and bleaches are in the process of destruction by intensive erosion. beneath the sun to some nondescript hue. The surface In fact, extensive mud and silt deposits are being laid and form of the desert is constantly in the process of down today in a few inland basins such as Great Salt creation, while the rocks that are the substance of that Lake or th·e Great Lakes, on coastal plain swamps and surface and form are constantly being destroyed. Thus continental shelves such as the Gulf Coast region, on the this land, where only form and living process are. stable flood plains and deltas of great rivers such as the lVlissis­ and substance is transitory, embodies an ancient. philo­ sippi and the Yangtse or in historic Egypt and Mesopo­ sophic concept among its hidden meanings. tamia, in gTeat embavments of the sea such as the Persian What, then, is this Chinle formation, the time-worn Gulf and \he Gulf of Lower California, and on the bot­ face of which we call the Painted Desert? In the area tom of the open sea. of the Painted Desert the Chinle formation consists main­ None of these areas of present deposition is exactly ly of shale, a soft, crumbly rock \\·ith a tendency to reminiscent of the geography of Northern Arizona, yet split into small, thin chips and slabs. The shale of the to have received this pile of mud and silt we now call the

PAGE SE\' E N • AR!ZOJ\A HIGI-!W .-\YS • JULY 19_:;8

~ The T eepees, eroded 111ozmds m Petrified Forest Chinle formation w e must either imagine some process fillings and flood-plain deposits of relatively swift streams of deposition quite unlike anything we can imagine op­ carrying a heavy load of sediment from a nearby source, erating on the earth today, or else we must conclude but as we approach the area of the present Painted D esert that :i..t some time in the geologic past northern Arizona fine silt and mud become the principal sediment, and this resembled one of these areas of present sedimentation. is typical of turbid streams meandering sluggishly through To decide among the various possible environments of low -lying coastal plain swamps. Now in the mind's eye deposition we must look to the details of the Chinle for­ ,ve transform the Painted Desert from a rugged and color­ mation, for it bears the distinctive hallmarks of its origin. ful land of canyons and mesas to a g reat, flat coastal plain First note that each environment w here mud and dotted w ith swamps and ponds and laced with muddy silt are deposited has these elements in common; a low­ streams which flow out of highlands to the northeast land or sea-floor to receive sediment connected by a and the south toward a sea to the west. drainage system to transport sediment with a land area Does this do violence to the imagination-a flight of undergoing erosion to supply sediment. Also note that fancy based on flimsy hypothesis? T hen think for a mo­ areas of mud and silt deposition are not unlimited in ex­ ment about one of the most beguiling features of the tent. In the direction of the land w hose erosion supplies Painted Desert- its petrified forests and its o ther fossils. the sediment, the deposits tend to pass into coarse sand Bits and pieces of fossil wood are common throughout and gravel, which is an intimation of steepening slopes and the Chinle formation, and in a few places there are ac­ swifter streams, and then to thin out and disappear. In cumulations of petrified logs and stumps in such abun­ the direction of the open sea the sediment derived from dance as to be called a P etrified Forest. The trees of the land tends to drop out and be supplanted by the remains Petrified Forest are primitive conifers distantly related of marine organisms and chemical precipitates from sea to the Norfolk Island pine. In Reg l\ilanning's wonderful water w hich mainly go to form limestone. The Chinle little "Cartoon G uide of Arizona" there is a marvelous formation may be traced southw ard only to the e dge recipe for petrifying wood. I recommend it to the c hef of the plateau, and here erosion has brought the geologic w ith esoteric tastes, but it is only fair to warn you t hat record to an inscrutable end. What lay to the south we it calls for allowing water-logged wood to become buried can only guess at for rocks of equivalent geologic age under t hree thousand feet of sediment and left to settle do not appear again until southern Sonora. However, for a couple of hundred million years. "You can't rush there are some indirect arguments w hich suggest that this," Reg adds. there may have been a dry land area over part of this Nmv it is difficult to imagine realistic conditions gap in southern Arizona and northern Sonora at the time under which a standing pine forest could be buried in the Chinle sediments were being deposited. A land mass mud- mangrove trees in a swamp, perhaps, but not pines. here may have helped to supply t he sediment. T he Chinle On t he other hand it is very common to see great accunrn­ formation, or rocks of equivalent age known b y different lations of drift-wood in the process of burial in mud and local names, extends eastward into New Mexico. In cen­ silt on the flood-plains and deltas of rivers, and this prc­ tral New Mexico erosion has cut deeper than the beds cisdy fits the details of the occurrence of fossil wood in of Chinle age, so there is a nother gap, but equivalent the Chinle formation, for the logs are almost invariably rocks, t hough n ot so colorful, reappear in eastern New imbedded in the shale in a horizontal position and they Mexico and West Texas. U ltimately the beds t hin out commonly show signs of having been water-worn and and come to an end further to the east in Texas. The beds battered befc,re being petrified. Furthermore, there are extend into eastern Utah and western Colorado, but in few signs of small twigs, needles, cones, and other forest the di rection of eastern Colorado they become thinner, litter one w ould expect if the trees had been buried where more drab in color and consist to an· increasing degree they grew. So the Petrified Forest helps to fi ll in the pic­ of coarse sand and conglomerate. To the west of the val­ ture of Chi nle time in Arizona with living detail. T he ley of the Little Colorado river the Chinle formation has highlands and possibly areas of the alluvial plain were heen removed by erosion, but to the northwest it appears clothed in forests of Araucarioxy lon arizonicum and in t he slopes at the base of the Vermilion Cli ffs and ex­ W oodworthia arizonica. Along the wooded banks of tends into Utah. In Nevada and California beds of equiva­ streams trees were torn away by floods to become w ater­ lent geologic age contain fossil sea shells and other marine logged and buried by mud in the swampy backwaters organisms and are dearly deposits of the sea floor. w hen the floods receded. After burial the wood decaved Out of this information, painstakingly collected and very slowly and in t he process of decay the chen1ical pieced together by a number of geologists over the past equilibrium of the ground-water was slightly disturbed eighty-odd years, a picture begins to take form. It is so that mineral matter, mainly silica, in solution in the clear that in "Chinle time," that is the time w hen t he ground-water was precipitated. Graduall y the wood be­ Chinle sediments were being deposited, the a rea we now came completely replaced by silica in t he tough, smooth, call N evada and Cali fornia lay beneath the sea. It a lso fine-grained form know n as chalcedony , brilliantly would seem that to the northeast, where the Chinle for­ stained by traces of other mineral materials, mainly i ron mation passes into coarse sediments, t hins out, and dis­ oxide. appears, and possibly to the sout h, w here t he record is In a similar way other fossil remains that have been missing, there must have been land areas. We begin to collected by paleontologists from the Chinle formation visualize lands to the northeast and p erhaps the south, help to fi ll in and verify the reconstruction of the geologic eroding away and supplying sediments to streams, and past, for the Chinle formation has been one of the world's a sea to t he west receiving the wastage of the land. N ear richest sources of fossil material from a time near t he the ancient land area to the northeast, the coarse sand­ beginning of the rise of the dinosaurs. T he fossil fauna stones and conglomerates arc typical of the c hannel- collected from the Chinle formation is entirely appro- N e7.uspapcr R ocle , Petrifi ed Forest, 7.vhere pre-historic m en scribbled neruJs and idle gossip

PACE E I GHT • ARlZON A HIGHWAYS • J U LY 1958 priate to the environment that has been sketched here Perhaps the most exotic and exciting coloring agent through the exercise of the scientific imagination. There in the Chinle formation is urnnium-an element to con­ are various kinds of fish, some of which closely resem­ jure with these days. Some of tiie compounds of uranium bled the modern garpike of the Louisiana bayous, and form brilliant yellow and orange minerals of which carno­ some of which were lungfish, a species adapted to life tite is perhaps the most common. Here and there in the in streams and ponds that intermittently dry up or be­ Chinle formation beds have been found bearing this tell­ come stagnant. There were molluscs resembling the fresh tale stain, and in some places, notably near Cameron, water mussels of the Mississippi valley. There were great, there are deposits of commercial grad.:-.. The deposits are heavily built amphibians with gaping, many-toothed jaws typically associated with dark gray to almost black layers that preyed on fish, and there were reptiles reminiscent which are so rich in the carbonized remains of ancient of the modern crocodile in form and habitat, though not vegetation as to locally resemble very low grade coal. actually ancestral to the modern crocodile. All of these These are clearly deposits formed from vegetation in creatures bespeak the environment of the fresh water swamps, but the uranium was not deposited in the swampland traversed by sluggish streams. In addition swamps at the time the organic sediment was building there are some small, primitive dinosaurs of the types up. The uranium appears to have been present much that in the succeeding geologic periods evolved into later in solution in ground-water circulating through monsters that ruled the earth-creatures that ran erect the Chinle formation. Carbonaceous material seems to on highly developed hind legs and used their dispro­ have the power of precipitating uranium from solution, portionately small front legs merely for seizing and and so locally these beds were replaced to a small manipulating their food. These creatures we must imagine extent by uranium minerals-it doesn't take much, only ranged upon the uplands and in the forests and were a fraction of one percent, to make a commercial only occasionally preserved when they met death in or deposit. It is essentially the same process as that which near streams and swamps, for in order for a record of the produced the petrified forest, only the petrifying mineral life of the past to be preserved in fossil form the animals was carnotite or some other uranium compound and not must die in a situation which permits them to be buried silica. In fact, entire logs have been found replaced by in sediment before they have a chance to decompose. carnotite worth tens of thousands of dollars for their Consequently the preservation of upland faunas in the fos­ uranium content. sil record is pretty hit or miss. If our scientific reconstruction of the conditions of Not only the bones but the tracks of the land animals deposition of the Chinle formation is convincing, it raises of Chinle time are preserved, notably in Dinosaur Canyon almost as many questions as it answers. What brought this about fifteen miles from Cameron. The tracks appear as episode of sedimentation about? How did it come to an Diorama at Museum recreates life in Triassic days. imprints on the surfaces of shale beds where the surfaces end? When did it happen? How has the Chinle formation have been uncovered rather gently by erosion. If you come to its present position? I can only attempt here to have an active imagination it is a little spooky to come briefly sketch the basis for the answers to these questions. Agate Bridge, most famous petrified tree in the world upon footprints of great three-toed monsters that walked Chinle formation passes downward without evidence the earth two hundred million years ago yet look as of an interruption in sedimentation into a layer of rock though made yesterday. known as the Shinarump conglomerate. The Shinarump The track tells you of course that a prehistoric crea­ in turn rests on another layer of sediment known as the ture walked there across soft ground which has now Moenkopi formation, but there appears to be a break turned to rock, but it also tells you that within a few between the Shinarump and the Moenkopi. Hills of hours or at most days after the creature walked, before Moenkopi rocks protrude up through the Shinarump and the tracks could be obliterated by the weather, the tracks in places the Shinarump is exceptionally thick, where were filled in and preserved by a layer of drifting, wind­ valleys carved in the Moenkopi formation were filled by blown sand or dust or by mud deposited by the flooding the coarse sand and gravel of the Shinarump. We won't of the area with turbid water. This is the sort of thing attempt to peer back into time beyond the Moenkopi for that happens today on tidal flats and flood plains or on the story is an endless one which might be followed layer the floors of intermittently flooded ponds and playas­ by layer through another mile of sedimentary formations another proof that in Chinle time the Painted Desert was exposed in the walls of the Grand Canyon, and at the a low-lying intermittently flooded plain. bottom we would ?ill . be only a fraction of the way The subtle and varied coloring of the Painted Desert through the geologic history of the earth. Suffice it to is another manifestation of the infinite variety of humble say that the relationship of the Shinarump to the Moen­ things, for one of the most important coloring agents kopi indicates that for a time the Moenkopi formation is simply iron rust, which even in very small amounts made up a land surface which underwent a certain amount has strong staining power. But there are hidden com­ of erosion producing hills and valleys of low relief. Then plexities to this common stuff, for iron oxide exists in at this land surface evidently began to subside, and the val­ least six different states of oxidation and hydration which leys to fill with coarse alluvium brought down by streams depend on rather slight differences in climate and chemical from the hypothetical highlands I have already described. environment, and each of these states has different pig­ Ultimately the old Moenkopi surface was inundated by menting powers and values. The delicate shading and alluvial sediment and aggraded to a rather featureless tinting of the Painted Desert rocks highlighted by sud­ plain, while the highlands became sufficiently reduced den strong contrasts in rock colors suggest sedimentation in the process of supplying this sediment so that the under constantly shifting conditions, and this again is streams became more sluggish, lost their power to trans­ typical of an alluviating lowland traversed by shifting port the coarser materials and the mud and silt of the streams and dotted by flooded ponds and swamps. Chinle formation began to accumulate.

PAGE TEN • ARIZONA HIGHWAYS • JULY 1958 The Chinle formation passes upward into the great Moenkopi formation and the Shinarump conglomerate cliff-forming strata that make bold escarpments to the as you traverse the long grade down to the Little Colo­ north and east of the Painted Desert-the Wingate and rado at Cameron._At the bottom of the grade the beds Navaho sandstones. Much of this sandstone has a peculiar again become horizontal and beyond the river the first type of irregular, criss-cross bedding characteristic of patches of the Chinle formation appear lying on top the sand deposited by wind. So Chinle time came to an of the Shinarump conglomerate. All of the visible forma­ end with the drying up of the streams that once watered tions have been draped over a step-like dislocation in a plain that harbored abundant life, and over it spread the so-called basement rocks below, like a pile of rugs an arid pall of drifting sand dunes. draped over a step in the floor of a room. On the Chinle time was just one episode in a very lengthy east side of this abrupt flexure in the rock all the for­ span of geologic history during which the area we know mations are from a thousand to two thousand feet lower as the plateau and canyon country played a rather pas­ than on the west side. Consequently formations like sive role in the development of the North American the Chinle, which have been stripped away by erosion continent. This span of time begins with strata on the on the higher platform to the west, are present in the order of half a billion years old exposed near the bottom lower platform to the east. Elsewhere the strata, instead of the Grand Canyon and continues until something of draping in smooth, unbroken folds over these step-like less than a hundred million years ago. For four or structures in the basement, are abruptly offset by faults. five hundred million years the crust of the earth in this In these places the rift in the ancient basement rocks sim­ region was relatively stable and for the most part under­ ply cuts right on up through the layers of sediment and went a protracted and gentle subsidence relative to sea the layers are offset, thousands of feet in some places, level so that at times the surface was below the sea and along a sharp fracture zone. These so-called monoclines received marine sediments, and at times at or slightly and faults are the principle structural complexities in the above sea level and received terrestial sediments similar otherwise evenly stratified and almost flat-lying uplifted to the Chinle formation, received no sediment at all, or sedimentary formations of the plateau. underwent some erosion. The warping of the surface of the earth, manifested The total pile of sediments that accumulated is more in the uplift of sediments that accumulated near sea level, than two miles thick and extends from a floor of even seems very great in the human scale of things, amounting more ancient rocks at the bottom of the Grand Canyon to a maximum near ten thousand feet. Yet on the scale to the tops of the Hopi mesas looking out over the Painted of the earth it was a bulge so slight as to be imperceptible Desert. Many of these strata are fossiliferous, which per­ if one were to draw a cross section of the earth to scale mits the geologist to fit them into the geologic time-scale. on this page. No sooner had this warping begun than the Approximate absolute ages in terms of millions of years process of its destruction by erosion set in. The canyons, can be given because the geologic time-scale, which is the mesas, the rim-rocks, and the cliffs, all of these dra­ mainly tied to the sequence of fossil life-forms, can be matic features have been produced by erosion gnawing tied in turn to an absolute time-scale based on measure­ away at what was once a practically unbroken cover of ments of radioactive decay in radioactive mineral de­ sediment laying like a pile of slightly warped and dislo­ posits here and there in the world which can be related cated blankets across northern Arizona. Only one thing closely in time of formation to the formation of associated has happened to complicate this picture. The rifts in the fossiliferous rocks. In terms of the geologic time scale earth that attended the uplift of the plateau tapped regions the Chinle formation was deposited during the Upper deep below where molten rock was generated. This so­ Triassic; which means that its deposition began something called magma rose, red hot, along the fissures to form vol­ less than two hundred million years ago and took place canos and extensive lava flows on the plateau. This vol­ over a period of ten or twenty million years. canic activity broke out here and there at different times The story closes with a great series of crustal dis­ even as the erosion of the plateau proceeded, locally fill­ turbances which began somewhat less than a hundred ing old canyons with lava and interrupting at times the million years ago and did much to bring the western inexorable destruction of the plateau by the relentless part of the continent to its present form. In the Rocky elements. Mountain region the crustal movements were violent The story really has no end. It is continuing today and and complex and the sedimentary strata which had accu­ it will continue for tomorrow and tomorrow. Measure­ mulated in this area were crumpled and distorted by ment has shown that the surface of the Painted Desert is "folding" of the strata on a gigantic scale to produce lowered by erosion an average of about an inch every five complicated mountain structures. In the plateau region, years. This sediment finds its way into the muddy waters however, the crust rose slowly in an arch so broad as of the Colorado. At the moment much of it is trapped by to be almost imperceptible in curvature extending across Lake Mead behind Hoover Dam, but this is only a mo­ northern Arizona. This uplift is broken here and there mentary interruption in its inexorable progress to the by step-like dislocations where adjacent blocks of the Gulf of Lower California. In a hundred years or so Lake crust rose by different amounts. One such structure, Mead will either fill with sediment or major engineering known as the East Kaibab monocline, brings the Painted measures will have to be taken to flush it out, and the Desert to an end west of the Little Colorado River. As wastage of the land will continue on its way. And so you approach this structure from the southwest on high­ in the tidal flats and on the bottom of the Gulf of Lower way 89 you pass the Grey Mountain trading post on a California a new blanket of sediment is forming from the plateau underlain by the pale gray Kaibab limestone. destruction of our land. Who is to say in some distant Abruptly, the limestone beds start to slope downward geologic age what kind of a land it will make when ours to the east and you cross the upturned edges of the has perhaps subsided again beneath the sea? A balanced log exposed by time and the weather

PAGE TW E LV E • ARIZONA HIGHWAYS • JULY 1958 ne ~n e one or~

BY JOYCE ROCKvVOOD MUENCH

PHOTOGRAPHS BY Josr.F MUENCH

f Isabella of Spain had lived a little long­ except at entrance and exit stations, to see a vast amount er and if the Spanish explorers in the of nothing while still granting license to claim, "Oh, yes, Soutlnvest had travelled a little farther ,ve've been to the Petrified Forest National Monument. west in their fruitless search for the That makes the umpteenth park we 'took in' across the Seven Cities of Cibola, they might have country ." found for their Queen, a fabulous I( however, you are curious about one of the gaud­ treasure of jewels. A million tons of iest bits of business Nature has worked out in the last jasper, amethyst, agate, carnelian-would have been more than enough to replace the crown jewels she pawned to start Columbus on his voyage. vVho knows how differ­ ently our own nation's history might have read, Instead, the Conquistadors named the shimmering stretches of unknown land-seen from afar-Desierto Pintado-our Painted Desert, an.cl left the greatest display of petrified wood in the world to be discovered three hundred years later and to be called (surely less poetically than they would have done) the Petrified Forest National J\!lonument. This treasure chest, unique in many ways on any continent, lies open-lidded in northeastern Arizona. Mod­ ern highways make it as easy to reach as Central Park from New Jersey, Pike's Peak from Colorado Springs, or the Rainbow Pier at Long Beach. The Main Street of America (U.S. 66) runs right across the upper, Painted Desert Section, the Atcheson, Topeka and Santa Fe line bisects its throat a little to the south, and U.S. 260 angles through the lower corner, between Holbrook and St. Johns. If daylight hours, particularly when the sun is high, finds you-in northeastern Arizona-intent on cocktails or that business appointment you must keep on the street, somewhere between the Chicago and Los Angeles cor­ ners, you can make a slight detour and g·o clear throuo-h the monument. Twenty-two miles soml{ gets you to the other end and another 19 will hurry you on 260, north­ west to 66 at Holbrook (or in reverse). A few minutes stop at the Rim of the Painted Desert to look across an expanse from which the sun has washed every vestige of color and modeling-then as fast as the law allows ( 35 miles within the preserve) will enable yon, with no stops

PAGF Fl FTF FN • ARIZONA HIGHWAYS • J U LY 1958 adobe bricks keep out summer heat and winter cold alike, giving it a permanent, homey look and the walls seem to have their roots deep in the soil. Just a stone's-throw from it is the Rim, a three-mile grandstand seat of desert panorama. As I have hinted, the midday hours do not do it justice. It's as though the land itself were taking a siesta, stretched out flat, with its face covered. Before and after that, climaxed at those twin­ focus points, when the sun first breaks over the horizon and when its slips back down under, the view is brushed with magic. The air itself has a palpable clarity and through its magnifying glass quality-you can see for miles and miles and more miles. In this view, there aren't any moving trains, tiny boxes of houses, or even moving figures of horseman, cow or dog to gage distance by. There is only the irreg­ ular swoop of Chinle formation, pushed up into hills here 1vlonu111ent headquarters and ridges there, and tiers and tiers of sculptured land, threaded by dry washes. One time there will be all blues, amethyst and pink, turning kaleidoscope-fashion ·while NOTES FOR PHOTOGRAPHERS you watch-to saffron or blood red. At sunset the sky OPPOSITE PAGE often glows along ragged mesas and ledges, quivering like "RA TNBOW COLORS IN STONE" BY JOSEF MUENCH. a ballet dancer on her very toes. 4x5 Graphic View camera; daylight E ktachrome; f.22 at 1 / 5th Wind may cavort thra"ugh shallow canyons or frolic sec.; 5" Tessar lens; June, sunny day. Here is a view of petrified wood. in the Second Forest. Tossed on the ground in disarray, the on wide open stretches to make, the scene luminous from ends of the logs show the brilliant shades created by mineral horizon to horizon, a philharmonic symphony in visible traces in the petrified wood. A Polaroid filter deepened the sky tones. Or it may be stabbingly clear, chiseled into a study and the colors. It is not difficult to compose a picture in this of elemental geometric planes by the savage bite of ero­ colorful National Monument with so many specimens of wood sion. Then you have a moonscape without the bother of to serve as foreground and the clay hills, through which a path­ interplanetary flight-sear and absolutely lifeless, a pro­ way winds, as the background. foundly effective glimpse of what the world may have FOLLOWING PAGES been like when this scenery was laid out, millions and "IN BLUE F OREST OF PETRIFIED FOREST" BY JOSEF millions of years ago. MUENCH. 4x5 Graphic View camera; daylight E ktachrome; Somewhere off in that view, without road or trail f.29 at 1 / 2 sec. with Polaroid filter; 5" Tessar lens; June, sunny to it is the sixth or Black Forest, one of the last where day. View from the rim, reached by the Upper Blue Forest Drive were discovered concentrations of petrified wood. ii1 Petrified National Forest looking over the colored clay hills We were standing on the Rim one day when I heard which John Muir named for its overall blue tones. Petrified wood is found scattered throughout, but is best seen by a half hour an Eastern visitor say to a park ranger: walk on the trail to the Lower Blue Forest Drive. A picture in "How can I get over to that highway. It looks paved this area cannot be taken in midday. Lower light catches the and can't be more than half a mile away." colors and modeling of the weird scenery. "There is no road over there," he told her. "What you see is just a dry streambed and it's at least twelve "THE FALLEN MONARCH" BY DICK CARTER. 4x5 Lin­ miles from here." hoff camera; E ktachrome; f.25 at 1 / 5 sec.; Schneider Angulon As the woman joined her family and drove off, the 90mm lens; June, slightly backlighted; ASA 1 2-N orwood Read~ ing 210. This fallen monarch is located in Petrified Forest Nation­ Ranger turned to us. al !Vlonument on the north side of Highway 66 and is about three "Just ·watch. She doesn't believe me and they'll take miles from the Painted Desert Lookout, in an area known as the the first turn-off in that direction. It goes a little way to Black Forest (about ten miles by jeep.) "Onyx Bridge" is official another lookout, still on the Rim and just as far away name for this feature. Total exposed length: 50 feet; length of from her 'road.' Half a dozen people do it every day. It's unsupported portion: 30 feet; diameter 20" at center w ith very little taper from end to end. Log bridges are a rarity because of the hard to understand just what tricks the clear air plays characteristic fracturing of the fossil logs, but there is nothing on our sense of distance." rare about the black petrifaction or the species of wood ( arua­ The Painted Desert, which extends for about 300 carioxy lon ari~.onicm11.) It was through the cooperation of Monu­ miles along the north side of the Little Colorado Rive1· ment Superintendent, Fred Fagergren, who appointed one of his has many surprises for the scenery-lover. I always think rangers to accompany the photographer to the bridge site by that the particular portion visible in the Petrified Forest jeep, that he was able to make this photograph. So far as is known, is a splendid place to get a first taste of the peculiar charms no photo of this bridge has been published before. of desert landscape. It's an acquired taste, you know, like "AGATE HOUSE - PETRIFIED FOREST" BY JOSEF that for avocados, blus cheese, or fine wines. Few people MUENCH. 4x5 Speed Graphic camera; daylight Kodachrome; like it right at first. I suppose that is because the spaces f.32 a.t 1/ 5th sec.; 6" Elnar lens; June, sunny day. This structure are too wide, and without the comforting security of is in the Third Forest of the Petrified Forest National Monument. trees or towns. The pattern becomes apparent gradually. Jc is reached by road an d then a short walk by trail to a hill from In time, after repeated or continual exposure, the desert which an overlook e:111 IJ e had of the surrounding desert. This partly restored prehistoric ruin shows more of the texture than seeps into the blood and settles somewhere back of the the coloring of the petrified wood but adds interest to the area eyes, rendering lesser panoramas insipid and cluttered. as proof that men li ve d here long ago (probably between the Mission 66, a far-seeing program involving all of the 4th and 13th centuries.)

PAGE SIXTEEN • ARIZONA HIGHWAYS • TULY 1958 "In Blue Forest of Petrified Forest" JOSEF MUENCH

national park system-to culminate on the 50th anniver­ sary in , 966, is scheduled to change the focus of the Paint­ ed Desert Section. A Visitor Center, headquarters and a museum will enlarge the interpretive service. Leaving the Rim and crossing busy U.S. 66 (an overhead is also planned here to remove the anxious wait­ ing at the corner till you dare dash across the busy thor­ oughfare) the park road negotiates a narrow connecting link between the two main portions. An overpass over the Santa Fe line and a bridge crossing the Rio Puerco lead on to the checking station. If you are entering here, an annual fee of one dollar or a fifteen-day charge of 50c is due and payable for each automobile or motorcycle. Pedestrians are free-perhaps on the theory that if you've walked-from anywhere­ you deserve to keep your money. Jercuelry from petrified wood As receipt the Ranger will give you a monument folder, a cheery greeting and some good advice. T he gist of it will be: CENTER PANEL "The Petrified Forest National Monument is yours "PANORAMA- PAINTED DESERT" BY HUBERT A. LOW­ to see and enjoy, but remember-you can't take it with MAN 4x5 Brand 17 View camera; Ektachrome; f.16 at , /10th sec.; 5" E lnar lens; April, late afternoon sunlight; ASA 12. Photograph you. True, a million tons of petrified wood may sound was made in the Petrified For est National Monument, just north of like a lot, but just one generation of visitors could remove U.S. 66 about a half mile, on the road along the Painted Desert it, a souvenir in every pocket. It took Nature well over Rim to the Han·ey House Restaurant. Camera was set up within a r 60 million years to create the spot; we should be able few yards of the road. ln late afternoon the li ght was much weaker to preserve it for our children and their children for at than it would ha,·e been in mid-afternoon. About half as long an least a few thousand years. exposure would have been indicated for this subject two hours earli er in the day. T he Painted Desert responds to every mood of "Petrified wood in bits, or se lected and polished, cut time and the weather, and changes in color and shadow as the and set in rings, bracelets, tie pins and every other way, hours change. is avai lable in curio shops. The wood came from other than monument lands and w hile you pay something for "LANDSCAPE OF SHIM1VIERING COLOR" BY FRANK it-it's less expensive in the long run to you as a taxpayer." PROCTOR. 4x5 Speed Graphic Pacemaker camera; Ektachrome; A few yards from the checking station is the partially f. 1 o at 1 / 50th sec.; 1z 7 mm. E,]{tar lens; July,. bright afternoon excavated ruins of a prehistoric dwelling. Set around a light; 200 plus on Weston iVleter. Photograph taken at the Painted Desert View Point. The endless miles of rolling mounds of hollow square 2 30 feet by 180 are the remnants of walls. painted sand that form Arizona's Painted Desert is a challenge An exhibit as well as the Ranger in charge can give you both to the amateur and professional photographer. Bright sunli ght some sidelights on the early people who farmed and hunt­ on the painted sand, brilliant in reAexion, is hard to capture on film. ed here a long, long time ago-probably from about 500 to 1400 A.O. "ARCH OF PETRIFlED WOOD" BY JOSEF MUENCH. 4x5 Farther along the road are two gigantic hills of clay, L inh of camera; daylight Ektachrome; f.3 z at 1/ 5 sec.; 6" Schneider the Teepees, banded in soft color that have run down the lens; December, bright, sunny day. Photograph taken in the Blue F orest area of the Petrified Forest National Monument. A low gray sides. angle was needed to show the bridge formed by a long petrified After another few miles you reach the parking space log, already breaking into sections as the soft earth is eroded away for Newspaper Rocle From the lip of a low rim it is one from under it. T hi s tree li ved 160 million years ago. of a number of tumbled sandstone boulders and is covered w ith crude designs. Some irregular steps w ind down "WILDERNESS OF COLOR" BY JERRY D. JACKA. 3¼x4¼ among them and at close hand, the pictographs are seen Speed Graphic camer a; Ektachrome; f..,z at 1/2 sec.; Oprar 4-7 to be pecked in the rock. There are human figures, hands, lens; July, early afternoon, slightly cloudy; Weston meter reading 250. Photograph taken from first Yiew point east of the Petrified feet, animals, sunrays and some just plain doodling. Forest turn-off on U.S. 66, approximately 26 miles east of Hol­ It would be nice if these had a meaning and could brook. Photograph is looking north from 66. Clouds, as they do to tell us facts about life in those early days. Archeologists most western landscapes, add to t he dramatic in a well-taken have proved, however, that they open no door onto the photograph. Scenes, s1.1ch as this, are at t heir most colorful during past and that the Indians had no written language, just t he summer thundershower seasons, when the desert itself is washed as our modern tribes have none. Perhaps instead of lying clean of gray, dull dust and the thunderheads accent not only the blue of sky but color of e,1rth as well. on a couch, talking away hi s troubles to a psychiatrist, our first Ameri can rid himself of his emotional blocs by OPPOSITE PAGE airing them on a stone. Dry climate plus some overhang "WALLS OF THE BLUE FOREST" BY FRANK PROCTOR. of rock has preserved them for us. 4x5 Speed Graphic Pacemaker camera; Ektachrome; f.zo at 1/ 2,th In the Blue Forest, soon reached, we come to the sec.; , 27mm. Ektar lens; July, very bright li ght; Weston Meter heart of what the Monument is all about. The Lower 400 pl us. T here is a trail in the Blue Forest at the parking space Blue Forest Drive winds through low hills, w ith petrified which goes up to the top of the mound. This picture was taken wood in hefty chunks along either side of the road, just a few feet away from the trail. T he bright light during the sum­ mer months do have an effect on light meters. "I always average as it was tumbled down into ravines and lodged in tangled t he readin gs from the sky to the brightest spot, and try to keep piles on t he slopes. Like weathered logs, the sides are apt within the latitude of the film, if possible," Proctor says. to be dull gray or black. At the ends or wherever the

PAGE TWENTY-FIVE • ARIZONA HlGHWAYS • outer layer has broken off, are the bright colors, rainbow shades that make the wood so fascinating. Try to find a shade that's missing-translucent or opaque. Smoky Quartz is black; jasper comes in red, brown, yellow, blue, green; the pink to reddish is Carne­ lian; Agate has definite patterns of color-that in Onyx lie in parallel lines. In the amethyst you will see several shadings of purple or violet, not because of any actual coloring matter, but because light is broken in passage through the stone. A three-mile loop of Upper Blue Forest Drive mounts to a plateau from which the scarp drops abruptly into hills that look velvet soft. The great naturalist, John lVIuir, stood here when he first visited the Blue Forest and named it for the over-all tones of blue. A trail leads back down to the lower road, and if one of your party is willing to drive the car-you will get quite a thrill out of walking down-it takes about half an hour. After a few steps on spongy, bentonitic clay, the walker is swallowed up in a strange and uncanny stageset where color and form are paramount. Petrified wood is scattered here and there, pieces protruding from the clay or in piles of chips that might have been freshly cut. I recall having to touch a piece of the pale yellow stuff to convince myself it was really stone. Agate Bridge is next on our itinerary-,, 1 feet of exposed log, spanning a 45-foot ravine to form a foot­ crossing of solid semi-precious stone. Probably the most famous petrified log in the world, it has a cement under­ pinning to assure that it will not be washed away at the caprice of some flood. Small desert trees around it point up how different the climate must have been when such giants as this fallen one could grow there. The largest concentrations of petrified wood are found in the southern part of the monument and we ap­ proach in order-on trails off spur roads into the First, Second and Third Forests. Undoubtedly, some visitors are surprised to find forests lying dmvn. How they came to be scattered on the ground and what turned them from vegetable fiber to rock is a long and exciting story. Questions about the wood begin to fill the mind as the forests are viewed and will be answered at the museum. Descriptions of the forests are difficult. No one, probably, has ever made a count of even the biggest­ say over wo feet long, and the number would be a drab thing compared to what the visitor sees-flashing colors from massive sections down to pieces smaller than their sparkle, laid on the vast background of clays. Some chunks balance on hill slopes or on crests, almost daring erosion to knock them off. A surprising number of the pieces are in stove-lengths, a result, it is believed, of pressure when the region, complete with its hidden treasure in a 3000-foot thick blanket was lifted from below sea level to its present elevation. In the Sec­ ond Forest are many pieces of white silicified wood. Some show scars of ancient fires and crystals have formed in the hollows. Here and in the Third Forest you can find boles 1 50 feet long, crisscrossed in a gargantuan, long­ since dried up mill pond. Panorama Knoll in the Third Forest presents an overview, wood in the foreground and stretching to dis­ tant erupting hills and ledges. On another hilltop, reached by trail, is Agate House. This early pueblo dwelling has been indifferently restored but does show that the pre-

PAGE TWENTY-SIX • ARIZONA HIGHWAYS • historic Indians used the petrified wood in making houses as well as for arrowheads and ornaments. Rainbow Forest area centers around the museum and present headquarters, with a lodge where meals are served, a pi~nic ground and the present hub of the interpretive service. The forest itself is reached through the museum and contains the gigantic Old Faithful log, with the largest root system ever found. Trails wind among the open-air displays, each rock with its own picture of the past. In the museum, the history of the region is cleverly told in diorama, sketch, picture and diagram. From the Triassic swamp with its living trees and the fern-like cycads, populated by equally huge and ugly creatures, through the death of the trees, their burial and transfor­ mation into stone-down to dazzling pieces of polished wood which are indeed museum pieces. Scientists have other words for the process, but en­ gagingly told as it is here, one needs only change the phrases to put Cinderella and Snow White in the shade. Bec:1use this really happened and we can see the ancient giants still lying under their spell-it has more appeal to our imaginations. One feature of the monument of which you may see little, since most of them are nocturnal in habits, are the animals. Even though none but a lizard shows himself to you-be assured that there is quite a list of desert dwellers. The pronghorn, bobcat, badger, rabbit, coyote, porcupine, skunk, fox and ground squirrels are here under official protection. A variety of flowers may seem equally shy, but spring brings them out to add color among the petrified wood, the yellow of golden sego lily, the brilliant Mari­ posa, four o'clocks and several species of cactus, among others. Not far from the Museum is the South Entrance Station where a Ranger waits, wanting to be assured that you are not taking away any of the nation's jewels. After all, you will want to come again to see them. Would they look as well anywhere else than in their own painted set­ ting, evolved through eons of time? Some seven million people have checked through the station (since the count was begun in 1924) and if each spent only a single hour there-the trees in their fallen glory have given seven million daylight hours of wonder and delight. (The road is closed at night.) By 1966 the number is envisioned as at least 1,350,000 visitors a year. Before Arizona became a state-back in 1895-the Territorial Legislature asked Congress to establish a na­ tional park here. Without such protection there was great danger of it all being carried off to use as curios, abrasives, pipe-stems or fireplace ornaments. 1906 brought monument status but the importance of the area has continued to grow, outstripping its facili­ ties by 1942. These will be improved with more interpre­ tive service, more personnel, as well as more buildings, essential to administration. Admirers of the monument, and that number must be as large as the visitor record, will be heartened at the move toward parkhood. Any of them who want to add a personal word of encouragement can get more information by writing to the Superintend­ ent of the monument at Holbrook, Arizona. The Petrified Forest deserves a place among the supreme examples of natural wilderness, to be protected and used by the people-not just today-but for always.

PAGE TWENTY-EIGHT • ARIZONA HIGHWAYS • JULY 1958 had obviously been used at one time by the prehistoric back in the cave at a point along the wall where the room ground sloth, remains of which he had also seen in Gyp­ split into two wings. This seemed the logical location sum Cave. at ,vhich to dig. Most animals have a tendency to crawl Because it was located so high above the lake, with back against a wall when they die inside a cave, thus the a superb view of the towering cliffs and canyons, the site selected for the pit seemed likely to contain the best cavern was promptly named Rampart Cave. Steps were collection of any fossil remains. As it happened, the immediately taken to find out w hat it might contain. choice was a good one. Almost from the start, the pit ( 6 The National Park Service assigned a crew to dig a test ft. square by 20 ft. deep) yielded a vast assortment of pit from the dung-covered surface of the fill to the rocky bones. But it was what was uncovered with the bones floor of the cave. However, what at first appeared to that proved of greatest interest. Piece by piece there be a somewhat routine job of excavating quickly de­ came to light large sections of the ground sloth's coat­ veloped into a major problem. The materials making up coarse, rather long-haired, with a rich red-brown color. the fill w ere powder dry and the least disturbance caused Not only was it now possible to reconstruct one of these a heavy choking fog of dust to fill the still air inside the animals ( N othrotherizmz shastense) accurately to scale, cave. Before the excavation could proceed, it was neces­ but his true color was known. So dry had the cave been sary to bring in masks to filter the air so that the tvorkers that the hair was not damaged, and even tissue, such as could breath with safety. However, the mask did not a section of the animal's windpipe, was found in good eliminate the discomfort' of being covered from head to condition. foot with a thick, irritating layer of dust as the digging That the cave had been occupied for fairly long got under way. periods of time was evident from the vast deposits of The spot selected for the test pit was some distance dung, ranging up to more than twenty feet in depth in

Grand Canyon, near Rmnpart Cave ·

LAST ST.A.ND OF THE GROUND SLOTH

BY RUSSELL K. GRATER

he hole in the cliff didn't look so un­ above the lake and wondered just what might be in it. usual. In fact, it might not even be He was especially interested because several shallow caves much of a hole. An investigation and overhanging ledges in the nearby region had been would probably show it to be just a found that contained valuable Indian artifacts-. Perhaps shallow overhang. Still, to Willis this hole might furnish another important find. Having Evans, it had tantalizing possibilities. some knowledge of archeology (he had helped excavate Suppose it were more than just a hole Gypsum Cave in southern Nevada in which were found in the rock; suppose it were a cave. After all, the cliff traces of early man) and being an Indian himself, he in w hich it was located was limestone-and caves are often decided to investigate at the first opportunity. found in limestone. If it were a cavern, then a whole new The opportunity was not long in coming, and a few field of possibilities would open up, because caves in this days later he and one of his enrollees worked their way part of Arizona were often places used by early man. The up a steep slope toward the hole in the cliffs about 650 hole in the cliffs could certainly stand some investigating. feet above the lake shore. As Evans pulled himself up The year was 1936. For several weeks Evans had onto the ledge in front of the cave, he noted that the been working as the foreman in charge of a small Civilian opening was actually fairly large-it had only looked Conservation Corp "fly camp" at Pierce Ferry, gateway small from a distance by comparison with the great to the lower end of the Grand Canyon. Every day he and height of the canyon walls. As his eyes became accus­ his crew of enrollees took off in boats and headed into the tomed to the dim light of the cave, he could tell the canyon where newly formed Lake Mead had now passageway led back into the cliff for a considerable drowned the once roaring waters of the Colorado River. distance, as he could not; see the end of it. But his interest Their job was to take acres of drifting logs and debris out in the possible depth of the cave was abruptly forgotten of the lake before the material became a navigation haz­ as he got a good look at the floor-it looked like an old ard, pile the material ashore and burn it. deserted horse stable with droppings strewn around in Each day, as he and his crew entered the canyon, large quantities. He hadn't found an early Indian site, but Evans looked with great interest at the small hole high he had discovered something far more ancient. The cave

PAGE THIRTY • ARIZONA HTOHW AYS • JULY 1958 parts of the cave. The remains of young sloths were conditions, the mountain goat, marmot and horse would found, but whether they were actually born in the shelter have found an almost ideal environment in the upper of the cliffs could not be determined for certain, but canyon region in the summer and in the lower part of such would appear to have been the case. What caused the canyon in the winter. Similarly, the sloths could the death of these young animals could only be surmised, have found life very acceptable. However, as the climate but the presence of a mountain lion skull possibly sup­ slowly changed in the highlands from cold and wet to plied part of the answer. There were also evidences that temperate and relatively dry, and the canyon floor the cave was used intermittentedly, as dust lavers were changed from temperate to low desert, the animal life found separating dung deposits. Apparently there had was unable to completely adapt itself to those conditions. been long periods of time when it was not occupied at all. The horse, goat and marmot disappeared, while the sloth But the sloth wasn't the only animal of scientific hung on into very recent time, living off of the type of interest found during the excavations. Bones of a species vegetation that lies below the cave entrance today. This of prehistoric horse, a type of mountain goat, marmots, belief is borne out by the fact that in the upper three mountain sheep, ringtails, lizards, birds and even a tor­ feet of the cave fill, the sloth remains outnumbered those toise, were uncovered. Speculation at once mounted as of other species by a ratio of almost ten to one. Below to what the presence of these animals indicated. After three feet, the reverse was true with the sloth remains all, the area today in which the cave is found is definitely outnumbered. Likely it was during this period of climatic low desert-hot, arid and without very much in the way change that the desert type Chuckwalla Lizard became a of vegetative cover. Some of these fossil animals we1:e cave fossil. It was also likely that the Desert Tortoise definitely not desert dwellers in any sense of the word, was added to the fossil list during this period. However, at least modern day descendents aren't. Take the moun­ one thing is certain-the tortoise did not climb the cliffs tain goat for example. Our present day goat lives in the to enter the cave. Instead it was undoubtedly carried in, rugged highlands of our Northwest mountains and in possibly by one of the big, hawl-like birds (its bones were Canada. He would certainly never think of coming down found in the cave) that landed at the mouth of the cave The cave is rather large and roomy, capable of housing into the desert to live. The same can be said for the mar­ upon occasion, there to fall prey to some predator, such several of the huge animals at one time. In some places mot. By nature and choice he loves the rocky slopes of as the bobcat ( whose bones were also uncovered). The the ceiling is rubbed smooth by the passage of the sloths cooler elevations, and seldom gets into an environment tortoise might even have been carried some distance to from one area to another. in any way resembling that of even high desert. Add to this point, possibly from the desert area that had de­ that the presence of the horse-normally a temporate veloped just off the lower end of the Grand Canyon. zone animal-and the evidence would tend to indicate that It is expected that some light may soon be shed on the climate at the time the cave was occupied must have the age of the sloth dung of the cave, thus dating the been temporate to cold. However, at this point, other period when the animal actually lived there. Not long evidence obtained seems to throw such a belief into a state ago, the cave was revisited. This furnished an oppor­ The entrance to the cave is 110-w barred by a steel gate of confusion. For example, there was the finding of the tunity to collect some of the undisturbed dung and seal to prevent destruction of the scientific materials inside. remains of the Chuckwalla Lizard, commonly found vet it in .air-tight containers. This material was then sent Permission to enter must be obtained from the Park today in the lower Grand Canyon, living 111 a typfcal away for a Carbon 14 test. If the materials collected can Service at Boulder City, Nev. desert environment. There was also the shell of the Desert be used in this type of dating, they may furnish the Tortoise, and certainly it is no cool climate dweller. To answer to when all this took place. It wouldn't be at all top it all off and thoroughly confuse the picture, the surprising to find that sloths lived in the cave within the sloth dung was analyzed by Dr. Munz and Dr. Lauder­ past 5000 years, or possibly less. mild, both of whom are recognized authorities in the It is also possible that early man may have lived in The large deposits of sloth dung found in the field of plant research. Both identified the plant frag­ the area during the last years of the sloth's existence­ cave indicate long use of cave by the prehistoric sloths. ments found in the droppings as belonging to plants and might even have had something to do with the ani­ found growing in the area today! Thus, the evidence mal's disappearance-but thus far nothing has been found produced by the test pit, while contributing much of to prove such is true. The nearby Mauv Caves also con­ value, also left the story of the cave, its occupants and tains some sloth dung, and some Indian artifacts, but the when they lived, in a pretty badly muddled state. Indian materials are on top of the dung. But perhaps the picture isn't as unclear as it might While the existence of the sloth has been known for appear. It just might be that conditions actually existed many years in various parts of the United States ( one at the time the cave was occupied that would cause all type was even described in 1797 by Thomas Jefferson, / these conflicting bits of evidence to fall into place. Direct­ who was a scientist of note as well° as a statesman), the ly across the canyon in front of the cave, and at several find at Rampart Cave is one of the richest and added a other places in the nearby region, are vast limy deposits wealth of knowledge. Located in a rather unaccessible on the slopes and overflowing the cliffs. These came part of the Grand Canyon in the Lake Mead National from numerous springs and seeps. vVithout doubt, such Recreation Area, it is one of the really valuable scientific an abundance of water can only mean that at some time treasures of the region. Because of its great research value, in the geologic past-likely quite recent as there are the cave is closed to entry today by a steel door, placed several of these springs in existence in the area yet today there by the National Park Service to protect its still un­ -the region was relatively moist, at least in the highland excavated portions from possible loss through unauthor­ regions. This would very likely have meant heavy snows ized digging or from a carelessly dropped match or on the canyon rim country in the winter and fairly fre­ cigarette. All this has happened because an Indian, with quent rains in the summer. Probably the bottom of the a keen interest and imagination, climbed a cliff to see Grand Canyon was beginning to feel the approach of the what new archeological treasures he might find inside arid, desert climate that was soon to arrive. Under such a very unimposing hole in the cliff. Deer rn tne He~rt of ~~more ~non

BY ED ELLINGER

PHOTOGRAPHS BY THE AUTHOR

here are only a few places on the Ari­ zona map marked "Wilderness Area." Sycamore Canyon, for good reason, is one of them. Sycamore, far off the beaten path, is relatively unknown compared to Grand Canyon, Oak Creek and Sabino. There are no roads there, no motels, no place to park your trailer or plug in your electric razor. Sycamore Canyon lies thirty miles south of Williams, Arizona, slashed deep into the heart of the tall pine iVlogollon Rim country. Sheer rock walls tower 2,000 feet above the canyon floor, eroded down through the soft sandstone by the receding waters of the Ice Age plus untold centuries of violent torrential floods. There is a lookout point high on a bluff overlooking the north boundary of the canyon. It may be reached by driving south from Williams on twenty miles of paved road to the turn-off for Whitehorse Lake, then an addi­ tional ten miles on dirt and gravel through heavily­ wooded pine. From this height one may look down into

High, red cliffs rise from canyon fioor. PAGE THIRTY-FIVE • ARIZONA HIGHWAYS • JULY 1958 Through Cow Flat m Sycamore Canyon Afany Indian rums found in canyon walls

Sycamore as it winds, twists and turns into the purple horses; then hid his gold in brimming Dutch ovens which trip. It was in the month of May, which meant there we reached Sycamore Tank. It was brimming with water gi-ey distance. he buried, someplace, in the Canyon. There were stories should be enough water to take care of the horses. which made it a perfect spot for our base camp. The Svcamore meanders south from the foot of the rim about the marauding Apaches; how they ambushed and The next day I drove to Clarkdale to talk over the alfalfa was quickly unloaded and tied up in the trees out to a length of twenty miles. It fans Out in spots to a width massacred General Crook's men at Battle Ridge, near trip with Zeke and see if he would be interested. Luckily of reach of game and cattle. We made it back to Clark­ of six miles, fed by many lesser canyons emptying into Deadman's Pocket, named in memory of a prospector for us he was, so we agreed on a schedule and prepara­ dale late that night. Next day we saddled up two stout Sycamore Basin from east and west. Heading south, the torn to shreds by a grizzly bear. ti~ns were quickly under way for our long-awaited pil­ horses at the Packard Ranch, which marks the southern flora of the canyon changes from Ponderosa pine to Sycamore was noted as a hideout for gunmen and gnmage. entrance to Sycamore. Suzie and Gadget were loaded cedar, juniper and scrub oak. Sycamore Creek lies along thieves-the perfect outlaw rendezvous for horse-rustlers Zeke was born in the Verde Valley and had made with four milk cans filled with fresh water for our drink­ the canyon floor, a roaring giant during the spring tha,vs and men on the dodge from the relentless long fingers of many trips into Sycamore. His parents had operated a ing and cooking. We headed back to Sycamore Tank, and summer rains, but a docile dry bed of bleached river justice. livery stable in Flagstaff before the turn of the century. but this time, straight up the Canyon instead of the 'round­ boulders the remainder of the year. The creek bed is In the broad boundaries of these canyon walls man When the snow started to fly on the San Francisco Peaks, about Perkinsville route. A second trip was made into the skirted by tall sycamores from which the canyon is has played out his wary game of hide-and-seek. He has they drove their horses down the narrow trail from the camp site that day to haul Dutch ovens, cooking pans named. The final four miles of Sycamore Creek is fed shared this remote refuge with the wild animals of the Mogollon Rim into Sycamore. They spent the three . and sleeping bags for the entire outfit. The camping gear from springs pouring from the depths of the canyon Soutlrn·cst-deer, elk, antelope, turkey and small game; winters of 1896-99 in a snug Indian cave and kept close was carefully stowed under a big cedar, then covered walls. This clear stream flows year 'round, emptying into all seeking food and shelter from the predatory mountain watch on their horses. They subsequently built a small by a water-pPoof tarp brought along for the purpose. the Verde River north of Clarkdale. lion and bear. Sycamore has borne silent witness to a log cabin and spent many more winters in the warm pro­ The final chore was to patch-up a nearby corral to hold To many of us who live in Sedona, at the entrance cross-section of life's drama but is now almost deserted tected pockets of the Canyon where there was ample the horses at night. to Oak Creek Canyon, the name Sycamore Canyon has by man, relegated to a grazing area for cattle and wild­ feed and water. The following day everything was ready for our ah,·ays been an enigma. What did Sycamore have that life. Sycamore had fired our imaginations until it finally Obviously Zeke was the man to pack us in. He had departure. All hands appeared on schedule at the Packard other canyons didn't have; We kne,v it was inaccessible prodded us into action. enough trail horses and a couple of sturdy mules named Ranch w hich is reached by driving north from Clarkdale and possessed a fabulous beauty, but perhaps its greatest A group of us were sitting around the fire one eve­ Suzie and Gadget. Zeke agreed there would likely be over fifteen miles of dirt road. The necessary shopping for magnetism was the legends we continually heard about ning at Lois and Nick Duncan's, talking about the legends sufficient water to take care of the stock. The timing provisions was accomplished in Cottonwood that morn­ its past; a past shrouded in romance and mystery; a past of our neighboring canyon. Nick finally spoke up and seemed perfect. The next day we loaded his jeep with ing; enough to furnish a mouth-watering diet from thick deeply immersed in Arizona history. \Ve often heard said, "It's about time we all stopped talking a.bout Syca­ ten bales of hay and hauled it from Clarkdale thirty frozen T-bone steaks to the more lowly hamburger. Old about buried treasure and the "Lost Padre Mine," estab­ more and go sec for ourselves. Let's get Zeke Taylor to miles to a point just north of Perkinsville; then headed prospectors and pre-historic Indians might well have lished by the Spanish Founders, then quickly abandoned. take us in. He has enough horses and mules and I'll bet east and drove into the Canyon. The jeep blazed it's own sneered. There was the legend of how Casner Mountain was named he'd be glad to do it." trail, up and down gullies, through terrain which nothing Then came the task of cautiously loading the mules for old Mose Casner who made a fortune in cattle and Right then and there eight of us agreed to make the but a four-wheeled drive vehicle could negotiate. Finally with our resplendent larder of precious groceries. Load-

PAGE '[HIR '[Y-S EVEN 0 ARIZONA HlGH"\VAYS • JULY 1958 ing a couple of mules is a delicate job, even for an old by centuries of wind and rain. The forms and shapes hand like Zeke. First he tightly secured the pack-saddles, were reminiscent of Monument Valley, on a somewhat then fastened canvas bags full of provisions on alternate smaller scale, but considerably more intimate and shel­ sides of this most beguiling and stubborn of all hybrids. tered. These almost-human animals know exactly, to a pound, One day we rode north from our base camp past when they have all the weight they want to carry. Pile Cow Flat into the Lookout Ridge area, then along a nar­ on a little too much and they drop to their knees and row trail along the edge of the creek and finally along patiently wait until the load is lightened. l\foles belong the creek bottom, up into a tight box canyon where to a union all their own. the Perkins bulls were pastured for the winter. Tem­ Our meeting place, the Packard Ranch, is leased porary camp was pitched on the dry sun-warmed sand from Phelps Dodge by Nick Perkins who for many years of the creek bed. One side was bordered by solid rock, has had a permit to "run" cattle in Sycamore. Sometime cut deep and jagged. Swallows had built their clay nests back, Nick turned over the supervision of the ranch to in crags under the ledges of the rock. It was fun to watch two extraordinary bachelors know as Dick and Jerry. them swirl in and out of their precariously perched This unusual pair love nature and solitude. They are dwellings. Up creek aways, were several deep holes filled getting their fill of both. They rake care of the ranch with enough precious water to dangle our toes and house, mend fences if absolutely necessary, greet the water the horses. Quantities of driftwood were lying curious and extend an open-handed hospitality to their about and it wasn't long before the campfire was blazing. many friends. Years ago, two rare vintage Che;vies were That night its quiet crackle lulled us to sleep as we acquired. The more fortunate one is used for transporta­ bedded-down close togetheP on the sand, relaxed in the tion. Its counterpart stands graciously on jacks, ready to snug warmth of our blankets. shed spare parts whenever needed. A tiny rock house is located a short distance from Jerry lays claim to a background of particular inter­ the water holes. It is used by the Perkins family on est. He can recall his English great-grandmother-known periodic overnight visits when they ride into the Canyon to the family as "Grandma Grot." This special grand­ to check on their live stock. Appropriately it is named mother was directly related to the Baldwin brothers who "Taylor Cabin," in memory of Zeke's folks who spent , were first cousins of no less a personage than Queen so many winters in Sycamore seeking shelter and comfort Victoria, who undoubtedly never heard of Sycamore for their horses. The interior of the cabin is cool and Canyon. But all this background hasn't turned Jerry's functional. It utilizes the Canyon wall for its own rear head the slightest bit and he's just one of the boys. wall. Even the chimney doesn't stand erect, as you might Dick and Jerry helped us saddle-up after Zeke loaded expect, but reclines gently against the wall of the canyon the mules; then bid us "good-bye and good luck" as our on which it rests. little group started our climb up out of the canyon along Another rnteresting day was spent exploring Indian the Packard Trail to the plateau above. Our first day's ruins, almost hidden from view under the edge of the objective was camp headquarters located on a broad Canyon wall. The easiest access was to come down from mesa overlooking Sycamore. The trail was rough and abff\ie, holding on to shrubs and rocks. The ruins were narrow for the first few miles as we proceeded in single doubtless from the Pueblo III period, placed at 1 200 A.O. file. Then it opened up into broad rambling country, That was the beginning of the multi-room masonary giving us our first glimpse of the ~errain on either side pueblos indicated by the construction of the walls made of the canyon-broad, peaceful and brilliantly green under from the soft sandstone hauled up from near the canyon foot from the spring rains. floor. The Indians had set heavy logs across the top of A chronicle of our camping activities would perhaps the walls-, using them as a base for the thatched roof not distinguish our trip from any other. Of course we covered by a solid foot of clay. Several of us found ar­ will always remember the smell of burning cedar, cow­ rowheads and bits of broken pottery, charred black by boy coffee and those wonderful slab's of thick country­ Indian fires; piles of corncobs and even pieces broken cured bacon that tasted so good with the flap-jacks and from metates-used for grinding the corn. maple syrup. We will remember the close ties of warm Best of all we could look out from our towering friendship as well as the many humorous incidents and vantage point and survey a vast area of magnificence and the satisfying feeling of bedding down on the ground beauty. For here, stretching into the distance, was Syca­ under clear Arizona skies. But yet, in spite of everything more Canyon, a "Wilderness Area," clearly entitled to there was also a subtle difference ,vhich stemmed from the name. Here was calm serenity, rare and· sweet. Here an air of profound stillness and expectancy. A compelling w·as a glimpse into a way of life knmvn to those who sensation as if Apache warriors, in full regalia, lurked lived many years ago, both Indian and white. Their behind every rock and cranny. We wouldn't have been struggle for survival was just as great as it is today­ surprised to have seen a heavily-armed possee of deter­ perhaps more so. Living in Sycamore in those days may mined law-abiding citizens ride hell-for-leather into the have had its drawbacks, but to us this "Wilderness Area" canyon, hot on the trail of horse rustlers returning from was a complete world all its own into which we could a raid on innocent homesteaders. One could almost hear escape if even for a brief moment. It was an experience the clear staccato volleys of gunfire reverberating against we will not soon forget. Our plans call for an annual the high surrounding walls. trip into Sycamore. There is lots more to see and many Our trip into Sycamore was over in the short space more places to explore. In fact one could spend a month of four days, but somehow it was a segment of our lives in the confines of this Canyon and find something new apart from the rest. We lived in an encircling panorama and exciting every day. We found out why Sycamore of beauty changing with each turn in the trail, revealing was different. We have a return trip to look forward new colorful statuesque forms of red sandstone carved to and it Won't come too soon for any of us.

PAG E THI RTY-ETGHT • ARIZONA HIGHWAYS • JULY 1958 Yours sincerely HOME THE COLOR.-\DO: T he sound of the sea ... Your June issue, which was devoted to the Colorado Ri\·er, was most interesting Ts lm·ely to me to me. The issue dramatizes one of America's greatest achie\·ements-reclamation. In \ Vith the rolling and falling a nd studying t he \rntershed map, I did not find the s ite of proposed Bridge Canyon D am. furious calling the fathomless sea. Wouldn't a dam in the Canyon ruin the scenic beauty of Grand Canyon? My home is R. S. Holmes The strength of the earth Providence, R. I. By tears a71d by mirth With flat plains and peaked hills and bright water, loud rills My home is the good stable earth. The vastness of sky A loud exhumed sigh \ Vith w hi te clouds a nd blue space and storm, w inds in mad race M y home is the infinite sky. ANNE H ARMON From El Burro, student p11blication of T exas 1Vestern College

POEM The sunset reels away like a broken seagull skidding· the sky on fantastic w ings, a split cry of the forever homeless • T/.,e proposed site of Bridge Canyon Dam is at the lower end of Grand Canyon. evolving into e\·er-fainter echoes.- Artist's sketch ( see above) shows that tbe Canyon ·would probably be en/.Janced by a da711 MARGOT FRASER in Bridge Canyon. Congress bas not autborized this danz in present dam construction on From El Burro, student t/.J e Colorado, !mt some day probably will. publication of T exas !V estern College FL YI~G THE COLORADO: Naurice Koonce came up w ith some grand photography in your June HIGH­ SONNET F OR SHELLEY YVA YS. I ha\·e never seen a finer presentation of the Colorado River. And I was glad On Hearing the Southwest W ind to see a couple of air views of the Colorado m our state. You ha\·e to admit we have Forgive a n unknown pen that dares to make some mighty pretty country to talk about. A comment, Master Shelley, on your form; Mrs. Alma Addison And tender your attention for the sake D em·er, Colorado Of one w ho lights a candle in the storm. I know that all your poems (save one ode) • TVe ba1·e recefred many letters from readers in Colorado conn11e11ti11g on t/.,eir state's Were written down for other eyes than mine . .. vie·ws in 011r June issue. N atura!ly we are glad they were appreciated. The state of Colorado T hat all your epipsyches speak a code bas piled up a lot of scenery between its borders as any tra1·eler t/.,rrmg/.J t/.ie state can That mocks my senses more from line to line. testify. And it was a plearnre to show scenes from Colorado; only we did w/.Jat ·we should I know t hat all your ghostly maidens are ba·ve done. Ours is a real neighborly journal, you know. R are beings I could never understand; That e\·ery shining dome and brother star OLD BOOKS : T hough dark for me, for you is near at hand . . . . In the "Yours Sincerely" column, May issue, Mr. A. A . Tarleton asks where out-of­ But how could two w ho differ to the end print books can be acquired. May I suggest " International Bookfinders," Box 3003, Beverly H ave suc h an understanding of the w ind? Hills, Calif. I have used their sen-ices and they have always located the books I've SAMCEL G. PENDERGRAST wanted-e\·en those long out of print. T hey ha\·e also a special catalog on Western books From El Burro, student titled "Western A mericana" w ith sections on each state. publication of T exas IVesteru College Mrs. Jerold F. Pittman neca, S. C. Se GHOST TOWN ... I notice in the May issue of your magazine a letter from Mr. A. A. Tarleton, T ulsa, Breathe gently, wind! D o not assail Okla., asking where he could obtain some out-of-print books. You might be interested to T hese weathered walls time-browned and frail. know that from time to time I h ave gotten out-of-print books from O 'Malley's Book Speak softly, wind, for silence owns Store, 377 Fourth A ve,, New York 16, N. Y. I have found them ,·ery cooperative in their T hese grass-grown streets and tumbled stones. dealings with me. Let only w hispers be your talk Hinton H. Noland Where none but fragile phantoms walk' Kansas City, Missouri S. O MAR BARKER • lVe appreciate the information contained in these letters. lVe are publis/.iing them m DESERT M IRAGE the /.iope t /.i e sources gh.:en fo r old books m ay be of -value to other readers. The hot red fi ngers of the sun Spread a blue sea upon the sand OPPOSIT E PAGE And there appeared tall ships .and sails ere silent waves laved sandy shores "EROSION IN C OLOR" BY CARL J UNGHANS. T he e roded, extravagantly Wh And in a twinkling all w as gone. colored Painted D esert of Arizona is o ne of E arth's most brilliant and dynamic T he s un had closed i ts magic doors. landscapes. T his photograph shows how wind, rain and changing climatic M U RIEL EAMES P OPE conditions can sculpture on a vast scale the color soaked land that is so much a part of the high, vast panoramic p lateau r egion of Northern Arizona. HOME.SONG BACK COVER Sing me a song of summer days:­ "IN THE HE.ART OF PETRIFIED FOREST" BY JERRY McLAIK 4x5 Speed Butterflies' lazy carefree ways . . . Graphic camera; Kodachrome; f.22 at 1/ 5th sec., July, bright s unshine in mid­ Young green earth and b lue sky over afternoon. T his jumble of logs in Arizona's Petrified Forest is mute evidence of the Fields of n ew-mown hay and clover ... fury of ancient seas and the inexorable might of erosion, time a nd the elements. Pattering lisp of little leaves . .. Scientists believe these giant trees were uprooted by cataclysmic earth upheavals Bluebirds nesting beneath the eaves ... and were washed a distance hundreds of miles to w here they now rest in majestic, Like water singing on the s hore .. . stony silence. And friends to cherish evermore. ·------ZELMA BENNETT