Park Significance

Significance statements, taken together as a whole, serve to describe the distinctiveness of the combined resources of the park, including natural, cultural, inspirational, scientific, historic, recreational, and other aspects. They include tangible and intangible characteristics and the context in which these characteristics are embedded. In most organizations, the mission of the organization and the set of significance statements combine to focus management actions and operations on the preservation and enjoyment of those attributes that most directly contribute to the importance of the place.

Significance Statements for Petrified Forest National Park (from Draft Comprehensive Interpretive Plan, 2006).

The Late Triassic fossil floras and faunas preserved at Petrified Forest National Park are globally significant because they provide a distinct record of diverse terrestrial ecosystems approximately 214 to 225 million years old. The fossils include one of the largest and most colorful deposits of mineralized wood in the world. These extensive and remarkable paleontological resources illustrate variability and evolutionary changes in plants and animals including early dinosaurs through place and time, lead to discoveries of important new species, and provide other insights that influence the world’s research and knowledge of Late Triassic terrestrial biotas and the development of more modern flora and fauna.
Fundamental resources and values:

• Late Triassic terrestrial plant and animal fossils contained within the Chinle Formation
• Petrified wood deposits in a natural setting
• The fossils and petrified wood which have been and will be preserved for scientific study (the museum collection), including over 60 holotypes (as of 2005) of extinct plants and animals (a holotype is the specimen used to describe a particular species)

Petrified Forest National Park contains some of the best exposures of Late Triassic terrestrial rocks and strata in the world. The Chinle Formation in the park preserves a variety of strata that represent ancient sedimentary environments (rivers, floodplains, lakes, swamps, soils, etc.) and their relationships to each other. The present landscape formed by geologic processes is integral to the paleontological resources, prehistoric and historic travel and trade corridors, the movement and distribution of modern flora and fauna, and scenic sculpted badlands, including the Painted Desert.
Fundamental resources and values (of the Chinle Formation)

• preserved depositional environments
• erosional properties
• widespread exposures
• erosional processes and resulting features – such as buttes, mesas, hoodoos
• significant deposits of Late Triassic terrestrial plant and animal fossils
• raw materials for lithic and ceramic production

Petrified Forest contains the largest example of a recovering native grassland in the southern Colorado Plateau region. This semi-desert shortgrass prairie and semi-desert shrub steppe preserves habitats for a variety of flora and fauna and provides refuge for several animals of concern such as pronghorn and prairie dogs.
Fundamental resources and values:

• Diversity of flora and fauna, including shared characteristics of three ecological regions (Great Basin, Sonoran, Great Plains)
• Ecological values - structure and composition, function, health, and recovery - owing to the lack of recent grazing relative to other areas of shortgrass prairie
• Ephemeral water resources (washes, seeps and springs, tanks, tinajas, depressions) are critically important for flora and fauna
• Riparian areas are critically important for refuge and habitat
• Some of the cleanest air in the country

Petrified Forest National Park contains a complex array of archeological and historic resources, including petroglyphs and a vast array of diverse ceramics, that illustrates a 10,000-year continuum of human land use. Subtle but challenging landforms influenced human movements on both north-south and east-west routes from prehistoric times to the present, affecting regional patterns of settlement, trade and migration. Shifting cultural boundaries in this area created a high diversity of cultural sites and features still important to modern American Indians of the region.
Fundamental resources and values:

• Evidence of ongoing use and occupation spans paleo Indian culture to modern American Indian culture. Types of resources include hunter/gatherer sites and early large pithouse villages with an outstanding collection of the earliest pottery in the region. Evidence also illustrates the interaction between people and their environment, for example cultural landscapes, utilization and trade of petrified wood as lithic material, and human relationships to ephemeral sources of water. Examples of archeological resources that are on the National Register of Historic Places include Agate House Pueblo, Puerco Ruins and Petroglyphs, Flattops Site, and Twin Buttes Archeological District.
• The park encompasses thousands of documented petroglyphs and hundreds of pictographs of high integrity. Many petroglyphs are related to sociopolitical territories of the overlapping cultures, records of migration, and also include a wide variety of solar calendars, which illustrate human interaction with the landscape and awareness of astronomy (thus the importance of dark night skies). Examples of petroglyphs that are on the National Register of Historic Places include Painted Desert Petroglyphs and Ruins Archeological District, Newspaper Rock Petroglyphs Archeological District, and Puerco Ruins and Petroglyphs.
• The area is a crossroads of trade routes, as evidenced by one of most diverse array of ceramics in the U.S., as well as the presence of marine shell, obsidian, and varied architectural styles.
• The cultural significance of this landscape extends from ancestral peoples through modern day native peoples (Hopi, Zuni, Navajo, and Apache), and relates to concepts of “homeland” and ancestral territory.

Other important resources and values (Historic resources that are not critical to achieving the park’s purpose and significance, but still represent an important continuation of cultural trends identified above and are of national significance.):

• The 35th Parallel Route is listed on the National Register of Historic Places, and roughly follows a prehistoric trade route. Resources include the Beale Camel Trail, the Whipple Expedition route, immigrant routes to California, the Santa Fe Railroad, the National Trails Highway, Route 66, stage stops, and Interstate 40.
• Early tourism and National Monument designation are another important historic theme, which resulted from the travel routes. Important resources include “New Deal” projects of the CCC and WPA, the NPS “Mission 66,” and the proposed Little Colorado River National Heritage Area. Related resources that are listed on the National Register of Historic Places include the Painted Desert Community Complex Historic District and the Painted Desert Inn (also a National Historic Landmark). The Rainbow Forest historic landscape has been determined eligible for listing on the National Register.
• Ranching, as illustrated by the Ortega and Paulsell ranches, is of local importance and contributes to the national story of ranching history. (more information needed to determine significance when new lands are acquired)

The area of Petrified Forest National Park has been a research laboratory for more than 150 years for paleontology, more than 100 years for archeological study, and more recently for other sciences. Research provides opportunities for education at many levels.
Fundamental resources and values:

• Paleontological resources, both in natural setting and in museum collection (described above)
• Archeological resources, both extant (described above) and in museum collection, including extensive type sherd collection
• Archives and historic photographs in museum collection
• History of the sciences of archeology and paleontology – remains of camps, historic collections, archives of journals and field notes, photos; includes work by Muir, Spier, Camp, Hough, Fewkes, Ward, Walker, Ash, Long, Parker
• Access to in situ resources and the museum collection that has made past and ongoing study possible

Petrified Forest National Park provides, on a variety of levels from easy to challenging, unparalleled opportunities for visitors to experience a colorful and scientifically important petrified forest in its natural setting, archeological resources illustrating people living in demanding environments, the expanse, wildness, and solitude of the Painted Desert, and seeing pronghorn and other wildlife of the shortgrass prairie.
Fundamental resources and values:

• Petrified wood deposits in a natural setting (described above)
• Archeological resources (described above)
• Designated wilderness (described below)
• Shortgrass prairie ecosystem (described above)

The exceptionally clear air and expansive, colorful landscapes at Petrified Forest National Park create distinctive scenic vistas.
Fundamental resources and values:

• Erosional processes that shape the landscape, and geomorphological features including the mesas, buttes, badlands, lava flows, washes, tinajas (described earlier)
• Variety of ecosystems, such as shortgrass prairie, shrub steppe, riparian, and badlands (described earlier)
• Cultural landscapes
• The renowned, colorful Painted Desert
• Dark night sky
• Visibility - can see over 100 miles, vast, expansive, open, unobstructed views

Petrified Forest National Park is the first National Park to have lands designated as part of the National Wilderness Preservation System, and offers opportunities to experience an unusual variety of resources in an undeveloped setting, as well as exceptional challenge and solitude.
Fundamental resources and values:

• Petrified wood deposits in a natural setting, other paleontological resources, petroglyphs, archeological sites, shortgrass prairie, and the colorful Painted Desert (described above).
• Lack of trails and demanding environment offer challenge and contribute to opportunities for solitude.
• Dark night sky
• Natural soundscape

Primary Interpretive Themes