THE OLDER MESOZOIC OF ARIZONA. 31 



of all the early exploring parties that passed through that region, although 

 it is next to certain that none of these parties ever saw what is now called 

 the Petrified Forest. They all passed within a few miles of it, but either 

 kept in the bed of the Rio Puerco or else some distance to the northwest 

 of it. Lieutenant Whipple's party crossed that stream at Navajo Springs 

 and followed it down at considerable distance from the valley on its right 

 bank, crossing a number of broad washes, which the}^ named. The first 

 of these washes that they crossed after leaving Navajo Springs is now 

 called Bonito Creek on nearly all maps. It joins the Rio Puerco about 

 6 miles below Navajo Springs. The next wash that the party crossed 

 they named Carrizo Creek. The third of these valleys or creeks was the 

 one in which the}^ found such a great quantity of beautifully colored pet- 

 rified wood, and from this circumstance named it Lithodendron Creek." 

 There are, of course, vast quantities of petrified wood on the slopes of all 

 these streams or valleys. The range of mesas that skirts the northern 

 flank of the Petrified Forest trends here considerably to the north and 

 reappears on the northwest side of the Rio Puerco only a few miles below 

 Carrizo, to the northeast of which these mesas are worn away much as 

 the}^ are in the Petrified Forest, leaving the petrified wood strewn over 

 the valleys and ridges, so that the conditions obtaining on Carrizo Creek 

 or Lithodendron Creek are very nearly the same as those of the Petrified 

 Forest. The wood is not so abundant there and is not generally so bril- 

 liantly colored, but some of it is jasperized and is very beautiful. The 

 two great logs that were brought to the National Museum in 1880 or 1881 



f'ln my report on the Petrified Forests of Arizona (p. 10), I pointed out the fact that Lithodendron Creek 

 could not by any possibihty pass through the present petrified forest, although a number of writers have 

 alluded to the valley in which that forest is located as Lithodendron Creek. And in the Twentieth Annual 

 Report, Pt. II, p. 324, I again mentioned this fact and stated in a footnote that Lithodendron Creek was 

 probably what is now called Carrizo Creek on the Land Office map, and which joins the Rio Puerco at what 

 was long Carrizo station on the Santa Fe Pacific Railroad, now abandoned. I have taken the trouble to verify 

 this conjecture, which proves to have been correct. On consulting in the Engineer Department of the Army 

 a map published in 1883, entitled "Map of the Territory of the United States West of the Mississippi River, 

 prepared in the office of the Chief of Engineers, U. S. A., under the direction of Brig. Gen. H. G. Wright, 

 Chief of Engrs., Bvt. Major-General,TJ.S. A., by W. W- Winship, D. Callahan, Louis Nell, and .T. R. P. Mechlin, 

 1883," I find that Lithodendron Creek is the name given to the wash that joins the Rio Puerco at Carrizo, 

 which is called Carrizo Creek on the Land Office map. Its course and character are identical on the two maps, 

 and are correct, as I have myself taken occasion to prove by actual observation. On the map above mentioned, 

 however, the next stream above, which is called Dead Creek on the Land Office map, is named Carrizo Creek, 

 but is made to join the Rio Puerco at Billings instead of S or 6 miles below, as Dead Creek is represented to 

 do. Their courses are very difl'erent, and I have not personally verified the accuracy of either of these maps. 

 It is, however, no longer a question that Lithodendron Creek is the dry wash which unites v/ith the Rio Puerco 

 at Carrizo. 



