By virtue of the Gadsden Purchase, at the close of the Mexican War, what
is now Arizona came into possession of the United States. At this date,
1848, there was no record of the Petrified Forest ever having been seen
by white men. In 1853 Lieut. Whipple, engaged in surveying a railroad
route to the Pacific, discovered the deposits lying to the north of the
present Reservation. He did not, however, discover the deposits of
petrified wood south of Adamana, and there is no definite record of just
when, and by whom, these “forests” were first seen. John Muir claims to
have discovered the Blue Forest.
An Indian legend tells that one of their Goddesses wandered into the
place which is now the Petrified Forest. She was hungry, cold and
exhausted. When she saw the hundreds of logs lying around she was
delighted and managed to kill a rabbit with a club, expecting to have a
delicious supper. When she attempted to kindle a fire to cook her kill,
the logs were wet and would not burn. In anger and her disappointment,
she cursed the spot and turned the logs into stone that they might never
burn.
As travel became more plentiful over the Santa Fe Railroad and across
country, great amounts of the fossilized wood were carried away or
destroyed, and the people of the Territory became alarmed about their
unprotected treasure. In 1895 the assembly sent this Memorial to
Congress.