Petrified Forest National Park (Images of America)

By: William Gibson Parker

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Synopsis: Petrified Forest National Park in Northeast Arizona was set aside in 1906 by Pres. Theodore Roosevelt to protect the scientifically important Mesozoic forests. With a boundary encompassing 225,000 acres, the park protects not only the largest and most colorful deposits of petrified wood in the world but also significant archeological and ecological resources and other important fossils, like the oldest dinosaurs in North America. The park has been a crossroads for travelers and a destination for scientists, including Albert Einstein and John Muir. As a work site of the Civilian Conservation Corps, the only national park crossed by the famous Route 66, and a centerpiece of the National Park Service's Mission 66 initiative, Petrified Forest National Park has a history that rivals that of more familiar national parks.