Petrified Forest - history of Petrified Forest National park

The history of Petrified Forest National park began with the documentation of fossil wood in the 1850s (NPS, 2007b). As the region developed, pioneers, ranchers, sightseers, and eventually commercial ventures came to collect fossils wood. In 1906, President Theodore Roosevelt created Petrified Forest National Monument. The early monument only encompassed selected stands of fossil trees (NPS, 2006c). Over 53,000 acres in the Painted Desert were added to the monument in 1932. Lands associated with Painted Desert Inn were added in 1936 (the Inn became a National Historic Landmark in 1987) (NPS, 2007b). Congress elevated the National Monument to National Park status in 1962. In 1970, Congress designated over 50,000 acres of the park as wilderness, part of the first wilderness designation in the National Park System ((NPS, 2006c; NPS, 2007b).