Just One Piece at a Time

Early accounts describe the Florissant valley as littered with petrified wood, and as word spread the area became a popular tourist destination. By June 13, 1872, observers warned that the Petrified Forest between Colorado Springs and Fairplay might soon disappear because tourists kept taking specimens and rapidly shrinking the stumps through destruction. Exploitation, constant collecting, and thoughtless damage continued for nearly 100 years, causing unmeasurable loss and destroying rare scientific evidence. In 1893, tourists still had access to the shale fossils and petrified wood. Some of the remaining stumps are now protected by shelters from weathering, fossil collecting is strictly prohibited by law, and the National Park Service continues to test and pursue the best methods for stabilizing and preserving them.

Colorado · United States