PETRIFIED FORESTS OF ARIZONA. 303 



to Arizona, and it is now at Adamana station, the nearest point to the 

 Petrified Forests on the Santa Fe Pacific Railroad. I was informed 

 that the plant never was put into operation, and on inquiring the rea- 

 son 1 was told that a Canadian company at about the same time com- 

 menced the manufacture of emery and reduced the price to a point 

 below that at which it would be profitable to grind up the Arizona 

 wood. So small a business consideration prevented the somewhat 

 wholesale denudation of the Petrified Forests for commercial purposes. 

 What the next inducement in the same direction may be can not be 

 predicted, but there is always the danger that some powerful mercan- 

 tile interest may do its destructive work. 



LOCAL OPINION RESPECTING THE PROPOSED RESERVE. 



In making the investigations above recorded, in compliance with 

 your instructions, I endeavored to preserve a wholly neutral attitude 

 on the general question as to the advisability of reserving the Petrified 

 Forests as a national park, and, as a matter of fact, the subject pre- 

 sented many practical difficulties which I was not and am not now 

 able to remove. However clear the general proposition may be that 

 so important a scenic feature and so great a natural wonder ought to 

 be cared for and preserved intact for the enjoyment and instruction of 

 the people, the question as to how this can best be accomplished is 

 somewhat complicated and requires for its solution practical rather 

 than scientific qualities of mind and considerable familiarity with its 

 popular aspects. I therefore considered it my duty to feel, as it were, 

 the local pulse on the subject, and I lost no opportunit}^ to obtain the 

 opinion of leading citizens of Arizona. As a result of my inquiries in 

 this direction I was able to make the generalization that within the 

 Territory the acquaintance with and interest in the project were 

 inversely proportional to the distance of the parties from the region 

 to be affected. In the immediate or close vicinity scarcely any one 

 had heard of the action of the Territorial legislature, and almost no 

 one evinced any interest in the matter. Such was the condition of 

 things in Holbrook and Winslow, At Flagstaff' and Williams 

 there was more of both information and interest. I did not go to 

 Prescott nor Phoenix, but I met and heard of people in both these 

 places who were familiar with the movement and deeply interested in 

 its success. First and foremost among these should be mentioned" Gov- 

 ernor Murphy, whose letter on the subject I give in full below. I 

 chanced to meet his brother, Mr. Frank M. Murphy, of Prescott, on 

 the train while returning from the field, and we had a conversation on 

 the subject, freely discussing all the principal points. He presented a 

 number of cogent arguments in favor of the project, as set forth in 

 the memorial. 



