- While explorers and settlers have known about the Petrified Forest since the mid-1800s, it was developed for the public in the 1960s.
Now that the weather is a bit cooler, it is a great time to get outdoors and explore. If you’d like to take an unforgettable journey back in time, 36 million years to be exact, then this is the place for you. No, there are no dinosaurs roaming the countryside outside of Flora, but there is a magnificent place of beauty and fascination at the Mississippi Petrified Forest.
The Petrified Forest was formed by an ancient log jam deposited many millions of years ago by a river in a still-under-construction continent. Now a trail through a lush forest reveals a treasure trove of petrified trees that once stood tall in what is now central Mississippi. Today they lay prone, literally turned to stone.
While explorers and settlers have known about the Petrified Forest since the mid-1800s, it was developed for the public in the 1960s when R.J. “Bob” and Shirl Schabilion acquired the property in 1962. Both were passionate about preserving our natural resources. They were conservationists before conservationists were cool.
Taking a tour through the Mississippi Petrified Forest is both relaxing and invigorating. The trails reveal hills with ravines hollowed out by nature during the past century. According to the Petrified Forest’s website, the size of the petrified logs indicates that as living trees, these stone giants were over one hundred feet tall, and perhaps a thousand or more years old.
Just recently, we’ve all seen what a roaring, thunderous, flood-swollen river can do. The images out of western North Carolina are mind-boggling. The water literally snatched everything in its path. That is exactly what happened tens of millions of years ago in the Petrified Forest.
There was a series of weather events over millennia that worked to create this magic place. Flowing southward, a swollen river ripped down the once magnificent trees. As explained on their website, “With the abating of this earth-changing force, the battered remnants of the trees finally began to sink, settling deeper into the watery ooze. Each fresh flood from the North brought more sand and silt to cover them. This continued for countless ages of time, ever more deeply burying the old trees. They slowly began to decay. Now the petrifaction process, turning once living trees into stone logs, has begun.”
The flood was followed by the age of the glaciers, which pushed forward and pulverized everything in their path. The water from the glaciers’ gradual melting carried the finely ground glacial dust with it, which was eventually deposited on the flood plains. There was little vegetation to hold the soil as it dried, so the winds picked up the fine dust particles, forming gigantic dust clouds that became huge dust storms.
Tons of dust were carried by the winds to the area where the stone logs lay buried far underground. As the winds died down the particles of glacial dust settled to the earth leaving a layer of fine, tan-colored soil over the area. For thousands of years, the great stone logs rested securely while far above them grasses, bushes, and trees began to rise and grow out of the fertile soil.
Over thousands of years, the fine Loess soil was nibbled away, eroded by wind and rain, forming small gullies that turned into larger gullies, which turned into ravines. A reddish sand began to appear, along with the old trees that had literally turned to stone, which is what visitors to The Mississippi Petrified Forest see today.
While it is fun to see the ancient logs while walking the trails at the Petrified Forest, there is more to see. In the spring and summer there are wildflowers and honeysuckle vines. The forest is ever-changing with the seasons, yet the pungent scent of pine and cedar permeates the air year ‘round, while native birds join in chorus as if to entertain hikers.
Admission into the Petrified Forest is $6.00 for children in grades one through 12 and for senior adults. Regular admission is $7.00, and $5.00 each for groups of 15 or more. Admission includes hiking the forest nature trails, as well as use of the picnic area, access to the museum which features a blacklight display of fluorescent minerals, a native wildlife display, and the gift shop. For another $4.00, visitors can participate in the gem flume.
The park and pavilion at The Mississippi Petrified Forest is often used for group events, including weddings, reunions, company picnics, and other special events.
A wooded campsite with full hookups including electric service, water, and sewer is available, as well as primitive campsites.
Susan Marquez
