--- title: Improvement Era description: Monthly periodical of the Mormon church, 1897 onward. This library holds the issues of November 1897 to December 1930. authors: - Grant, Heber J. collections: - periodicals tags: - magazine - improvement-era periodical: Improvement Era volume: 11 number: 5 published: 1908-03 publisher: Young Men’s Mutual Improvement Associations publisher_place: Salt Lake City language: en type: magazine reference: 'Heber J. Grant, "In the Petrified Forests of Arizona," *Improvement Era* 11, no. 5 (March 1908): 359–360.' source: url: https://archive.org/details/improvementera1105unse transcription: Transcribed from the Internet Archive scan of each issue (the item for each issue is named in the issue's own source); unnumbered advertising leaves are omitted, printed page numbers are kept as page markers. identifier: improvementera1105unse start_page: 359 end_page: 360 rights: status: public-domain basis: US publication 1930 or earlier (published 1908-03) source: https://archive.org/details/improvementera1105unse publication_year: 1908 note: The Internet Archive item metadata carries a blanket "© Copyright by Intellectual Reserve, Inc." notice. The library owner judged it inapplicable because this issue was published in 1908, before 1931; a scan-level notice does not restore copyright. --- # In the Petrified Forests of Arizona IN THE PETRIFIED FORESTS OF ARIZONA. The scenes herewith presented were photographed by Elder George Albert Smith, on his recent visit to Arizona. They give a glimpse of the wonderful petrified forests of that state in which large, once flourishing trees have been turned to stone through mineral action. In certain places, the Colorado river has cut through six thousand feet of strata, exposing formations down to carboniferous and tertiary marine strata; and it has been said, as recorded in Americana, that every period of the world's history since the dawn of life is represented in the geology of Arizona. Near Holbrook, Navajo county, is a wonderful chalcedony forest, with trunks four feet thick, cracked into exquisitely colored blocks. Chalcedony is a mineral, a variety of quartz, resembling milk diluted with water, semi-transparent and more or less clouded with circles and spots, and is found usually in cavities of rocks uncrystallized. In the photos may be seen trees and parts of trees turned to stone, perhaps through the penetrating action of this or other mineral, and left upon the dreary desert as witnesses of the green forests that flourished here in ages past. ^ Hj ^m ^^^^^: .,. -^H^^H 1 [^ ':';' .-^^MBpr' ■'^»«WiHil.^ H :^ **'' ^ ..^l In the Petrified Forests of Arizona