TO THE SENATE AND HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES OF THE UNITED STATES OF
AMERICA IN CONGRESS ASSEMBLED:
We, your memorialists, the eighteenth legislative assembly of Arizona,
beg leave to represent to your honorable bodies:
FIRST: That there is in the northern part of this Territory, lying
within the borders of Apache County, near the Town of Holbrook, a
wonderful deposit of petrified wood commonly called the “Petrified
Forest” or “Chalcedony Park”. This deposit, or forest, is unequalled for
its extent, the size of the trees and the beauty and great variety of
coloring found in the logs.
The country ten miles square is covered by the trunks of trees, some of
which measure over two hundred feet in length and from seven to ten feet
in diameter.
Ruthless curiosity seekers are destroying these huge trees and logs by
blasting them in pieces in search of crystals, which are found in the
center of many of them, while carloads of the limbs and smaller pieces
are being shipped away to be ground up for various purposes.
SECOND: Believing that this wonderful deposit should be kept inviolate,
that future generations may enjoy its beauties and study one of the most
curious and interesting effects of nature’s forces,
We, your memorialists, most respectfully request that the Commissioner
of the General Land Office be directed to withdraw from entry all public
lands covered by this forest until a Commission, or officer appointed by
your honorable body, may investigate and report to you upon the
advisability of taking this forest under the charge of the General
Government and making a National Park or Reservation of it. * * *
J. H. Carpenter, SPEAKER
A. J. Doran, PRESIDENT
Filed in the office of the Secretary of the Territory of Arizona this
11th day of February A. D. 1895, at 11 a. m.
This appeal was effective and Congress appointed Prof. Lester F. Ward to
visit the Petrified Forest and make a report. The report was favorable
to preservation, and acting with his usual promptness, President
Theodore Roosevelt issued the proclamation which created the Petrified
Forest National Monument.
[Illustration: Photo by C. J. Smith
The surrounding country has washed away in the passing of years and
leaves this mammoth cross section thirty feet or more above the plain.]
This proclamation, in part, follows: