Introduction
Studying natural sites can provide helpful information about a significant place in any country. It can be its history, the plants and animals that live there, and other features. This work aims to analyze the listed aspects of The Petrified Forest National Park, which is of interest for its uniqueness. The main object of this report is the provision of data obtained during examination and field trips to this location, which will contribute to the deepening of information about unique places in the state of Arizona.
First of all, it is necessary to start with a general description of the terrain of the national park, which is one of the attractions of Arizona. Generally, the park consists of a stunted cold steppe; in some places, intermountain hollows can be found. The climate is a semi-arid grassland, and the monsoonal pattern develops over the Southwest. Therefore, it is characterized by sufficient dryness, while precipitation in the form of snow is possible in winter seasons, and it rains during the monsoon. Since many trees have been growing and dying in the forest for a very long time, people can also see a petrified forest in it. Most of these localities consist of quartz, which gives the trees an incredible and extraordinary shine. This characteristic makes the national park stand out from the rest of the country’s natural sites.
Further, the petrified landscape of the Arizona forest has a rather harsh landscape when people first look at it. The Petrified Forest is the only national park in the territory in which there is a section of the historic Route 66 (“Petrified Forest,” 2021). The location of park is in the eastern part of the state of Arizona, and the Interstate 40 highway also passes through it (Figure 1). It is located far enough from the central infrastructure, and Holbrook is the closest city to it.
Geographically, it is also worth noting that the national park is divided into northern and southern parts, which are connected by a narrow neck of land. The southern part is distinguished by the fact that most of its territory is private property, which is still controlled by the park administration. At the same time, only some areas of the Petrified Forest are fenced. In the northern part, there is a separate attraction, which is very popular with tourists, called the Painted Desert. This area is its southeastern extension, and its feature is colorful wind-eroded hills. The highest point in the northern area of the National Park is Pilot Rock, whose height is 6,235 feet (Gallenstein, 2021). Unlike the southern part, the server room is not so well adapted for visiting and is a wilderness area.
Plants and Animals
The Petrified Forest National Park, like all other natural locations, has its own special plants and fauna representatives. One of the main aspects that shapes the flora and fauna of the park is its elevation (5,800 feet), and average annual precipitation (less than 10 inches) (Schott, 2019). Therefore, in the park, in addition to fossils, various plants that support its ecosystem in a stable state can be found. This is due to the filtration of pollutants and the conversion of carbon dioxide into oxygen for the comfortable living of animals. Due to the fact that the climate in this part of Arizona cannot be called mild, all plants in the Petrified Forest are able to adapt and divide into dropped escapers and dropped resistors. Consequently, an example of the first category is plants that develop under the necessary conditions and do not die when they are in unfavorable conditions. These include herbs and wildflowers, such as desert paintbrushes (lat. Castilleja chromosa), western wallflower (lat. Erysimum capitatum), or plains springparsley (lat. Cymopterus glomeratus) (“Petrified Forest National Park”, n.d.). The second type of plant has mechanisms to reduce damage from drought. These include cacti (lat. Cactaceae), yucca (lat. Yucca), and mosses (lat. Musk) (“Petrified Forest National Park”, n.d.). Henceforth, it can be said that a park is an outstanding place that combines both multiple fossils and plants.
In addition to numerous plants, the park also has quite a vast number of various animals. The peculiarity of the park is also that all the animals in it are divided according to the level of activity depending on the temperature range. Hence, there are twilight species whose peak activity occurs at dawn or at night when the temperature is low enough. These are predatory animals, for which darkness is necessary for successful hunting. Other animals, such are snakes and lizards, are more active in daylight, for which high temperatures are comfortable. One of the most common birds in the national park is the crow. Other birds that can be found in the forest are raptors, songbirds, and ground birds. The animals inhabiting the territories of the studied location include moose, black bears, bobcats, antelope, rattlesnakes, and lizards. In addition, badgers, skunks, tree rats, coyotes, and lynxes can be found in the park.
History
The history of the Petrified Forest has its origins more than two hundred million years ago. It is noted that in the area where the national park was later formed, there were once rivers teeming with fish, and dinosaurs roamed them in search of food. The landschaft of the park was formed due to various natural conditions that occurred over the long existence of the park; hence, the vast trees standing there were torn out by intense floods or lava flows. After that, it washed away from the highlands and were covered with silt and volcanic ash. The different color of the fossils was given by silica, which was formed when water seeped through the wood. Another factor in the formation of the Petrified Forest was geological phenomena, wind, and numerous rains. They washed and swept away the top layer of sediments and exposed the trees which petrified in the course of time.
Historical data on the Petrified Forest begins with the documentation of fossil wood in the 50s of the nineteenth century. In the course of history, various ranchers, tourists, and commercial enterprises have passed through the forest, and these people began work on the extraction of fossil wood. The park was officially opened in 1906 as the Petrified Forest National Monument (Margherita, 2017). The lands of Painted Desert were added in 1936, and the status of a National Park was assigned to this territory in 1962. Eventually, after a few years, most of the park’s land was designated as wildlife, which became part of the first wilderness designation in the United States National Park System.
Various paleoecological evidence can be used to date the environment of the Petrified Forest. Among them, there are directly fossilized wood and white volcanic ash. They will allow determining the formation of rock layers, as well as paleo cultural artifacts, such as weapons, ceramics, and pueblo dwellings. Various rivers, conifers, tree ferns, and ginkgoes were also present in the park. During the Paleo-Indian period, which was produced about fifteen thousand years ago, multiple wild plants were present on the territory, and there is information about later extinct bison. In early, middle, and late Archaic Culture, 10,000 – 2,550 years ago, farming and sedentism began to emerge in the park. The main activities were the cultivation of corn and the production of agricultural tools.
In the period of Basketmaker II and III, approximately 2,500 – 1,450 years ago, there was a transition down from Mesa tops to slopes. The main occupations of people in the park were growing corn, squash, beans, baskets and brown pottery, bow and arrow, and petroglyphs were created. A thousand years later, at the time of Pueblo II and III, a severe drought occurred in the studied territories, which led to the construction of multi-storied pueblos (Peyambari et al., 2019). Therefore, this period was characterized by the creation of black-on-red and polychrome pottery, trade items, bulk petroglyphs, and kachinas. Pueblo IV 700 – 550 years ago had such features as long and protracted droughts and short winters with precipitation, which entailed a shorter growing season. Migrated by 1450 CE to much larger groups elsewhere, the area was used for travel and resources. Currently, Hopi, Zuni and Navajo, and other Puebloan people have ancestral linkage to the Puebloan cultures.
Conclusion
In conclusion, this work investigated such a unique natural object as the Petrified Forest National Park in Arizona. During the analysis of the sources, information was derived about the natural features of the territory, which also included animals and plants. Moreover, the history of the formation of the national park and the cultural component of the people who once lived on its territory were examined. At the moment, the Petrified Park is a popular attraction, where it is possible to stay in tents or just go hiking. The unique characteristic of the site, which makes it an important location, is its unique appearance, formed during natural changes.
References
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Margherita, M. (2017). The Antiquities Act & national monuments: Analysis of geological, ecological, & archaeological resources of the Colorado plateau. Tulane Environmental Law Journal, 30(2), 273-324.
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Peyambari, M., Warner, S., Stoler, N., Rainer, D., & Roossinck, M. J. (2019). A 1,000-year-old RNA virus.Journal of Virology, 93(1), e01188-18.
Schott, A. M. (2019). Eolian landscape history and prehistoric dune farming in Petrified Forest national park: A geoarchaeological approach to understanding the long. The University of Arizona ProQuest Dissertations Publishing, 1001, 88.