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Glimpses of our National Monuments

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  • wcu_great_smoky_mtns-10702.jpg
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  • OUR NATIONAL MONUMENTS 45 as high as 60 or 70 feet, throwing out thick powerful branches which bend sharply upward, paralleling the main stock. In the spring, clusters of beautiful white flowers appear on the ends of the trunk and branches, and later an edible fruit develops. The bird life of the monument is that of the desert, but some of the species are to be found nowhere save in the vicinity of the giant saguaro. The birds forming the "giant cactus association" include the Saguaro screech owl, elf owl, Gila woodpecker, Mearns gilded flicker, and Arizona crested flycatcher. Contrasting pictures of desert and cultivated lands may be viewed side by side, separated, perhaps, merely by the width of an irrigation canal, and no less startling and complete is the transformation in the bird life. Through the center of the monument, running northwest and southwest, is a ridge of low hills rising from the flat desert to a height of 150 to 200 feet. The rocks in the ridge consist of conglomerate of Tertiary age, that rests on older crystalline rocks. Faulted or tilted minutely, these rocks preserve an epitome of the late geologic history of Arizona that may be seen in an hour's walk. The brick-red conglomerate has been worn considerably by the elements into fantastic peaks and domes and decorated by niches and caves. A few openings extend entirely through the rocks. One of these openings, " Hole-in-the-Rock," is an aperture some 15 feet high and 25 feet long, with a cave-like approach to the hole on each side. It is a favorite picnic spot. Close by is a small mountain with a foot trail leading to the top. From this viewpoint one can see almost the entire monument area of over 1,900 acres, a bit of unchanged desert in the midst of the cultivated and really alien luxuriance of the Salt River project. In every direction one sees the work of man, the large irrigation canals with smaller ones leading off, all marked by tree-lined banks, and beyond thousands on thousands of acres of fertile fields that only a short time ago were desert. The Papago Saguaro National Monument is on the main highway between Phoenix and Tempe. Phoenix is the nearest railroad point, and is reached by the Santa Fe, Prescott & Phoenix Railroad from the north and the Southern Pacific and the Arizona Eastern from the south. J. E. McClain, of Tempe, Ariz., is custodian of the monument. PETRIFIED FOREST NATIONAL MONUMENT The deposits called the Petrified Forests of Arizona extend over an area of more than LOO square miles and present great variety both in structure of the log-bearing strata and in characteristics of the petrified wood. Of this area about 40 square miles have been set aside as the Petrified Forest National Monument. When the 53287°—20—4
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Object’s are ‘parent’ level descriptions to ‘children’ items, (e.g. a book with pages).