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.

House Memorial No. 4

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.

This proclamation, in part, follows:

BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, A PROCLAMATION.

WHEREAS, it is provided by section two of the Act of Congress, approved June 8, 1906, entitled, “AN ACT FOR THE PRESERVATION OF AMERICAN ANTIQUITIES”, “THAT THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES IS HEREBY AUTHORIZED, IN HIS DISCRETION, TO DECLARE BY PUBLIC PROCLAMATION HISTORIC LANDMARKS, HISTORIC AND PREHISTORIC STRUCTURES, AND OTHER OBJECTS OF HISTORIC OR SCIENTIFIC INTEREST TO BE NATIONAL MONUMENTS * * *

And, whereas the mineralized remains of Mesozoic forests, commonly known as the “Petrified Forest”, in the Territory of Arizona, situated upon the public lands owned and controlled by the United States, are of the greatest scientific interest and value, and it appears that the public good would be promoted by reserving these deposits of fossilized wood as a national monument with as much land as may seem necessary for the proper protection thereof;

Now, therefore, I, Theodore Roosevelt, President of the United States of America, by virtue of the power in me vested by section two of the aforesaid Act of Congress, do hereby set aside as the Petrified Forest National Monument * * *

Warning is hereby expressly given to all unauthorized persons not to appropriate, excavate, injure, or destroy any of the mineralized forest remains hereby declared to be a National Monument or to locate or settle upon any of the lands reserved and made a part of said Monument by this proclamation.

In witness whereof, I have hereunto set my hand and caused the Seal of the United States to be affixed.

Done at the city of Washington, this 8th day of December, in the year of our Lord one thousand nine hundred and six and the Independence of the United States the one hundred and thirty-first.

THEODORE ROOSEVELT.

In 1911, President Taft made a new proclamation reducing the extent of the Petrified Forest National Monument to its present size of 25,908 acres.