Petrified Forest has long been a place where scientists study both fossils and the history of earlier discoveries. Interest in the area’s fossils dates to 1853, when a U.S. Army expedition discovered the Black Forest in what would become the park’s northern section. Later, at the request of General William Tecumseh Sherman, two petrified logs from that area were acquired for the Smithsonian Institution. In the early 1900s, while living in nearby Adamana, conservationist John Muir collected fossils and named some of the park’s forests. In 1921, Annie Alexander and a companion discovered some of the first fossil reptiles and amphibians there and brought their findings to the attention of Charles L. Camp, who then spent nearly a decade studying the area’s fossil vertebrates. These and other early researchers laid the foundation for current paleontological study of the park’s rich fossils.