You're Welcome, Dinosaurs

Photo: fiberglass dinosaurs outside Petrified Forest National Park


Earlier this month the National Park Service acquired 26,500 acres of new land for Petrified Forest National Park in Arizona, a project that's been part of my scope of work.

Twenty-six-thousand-five-hundred-acres is a LOT OF LAND.

Here's the map of the Park before the acquisition. Notice the skinny strip going down the middle.

Here's the Park's ownership after the purchase, with the addition of the large block to the east. The large block to the west is the expanded boundary, but that land remains mainly in private ownership. Visitors probably used to think the view-shed to the east was part of the Park, but it was at threat because it was in private ownership. Owners in the past had attempted to sell some of the artifacts. Now, the land to the east is protected and the National Park Service will be able to survey the land better.

Photo: dinosaur fossils at Rainbow Forest Museum in Petrified Forest National Park

The new land has "long been the envy of archeologists and paleontologists and will increase opportunities for both researchers and visitors to peer back into the Late Triassic period, which preceded the Jurassic period, during which giant dinosaurs thrived." reports the New York Times, one of the many national papers that wrote about the deal. Exciting to see this project receive so much coverage!

Photo: John Muir surveying Petrified Forest National Park, 1905

President Theodore Roosevelt established the Petrified Forest National Park in 1906, after a bit of lobbying from John Muir. Muir is famous for his work in California and Yosemite and starting the Sierra Club, but he also helped create Petrified Forest National Park, too.

More about Petrified Forest National Park at this link.

Who wants to go with me to Arizona to see some more dinosaurs! (fossils)

Photo: Rainbow at Pedestal Log, Blue Mesa, Petrified Forest National Park