The most unusual and liminal national park I’ve ever been to is the Petrified Forest in Arizona. The only way I can describe it is like being on another planet. It’s vast, barren, and full of ancient fossils, mostly trees. The color palette is mostly browns, grays, and oranges. The Petrified Forest seems very uninhabitable; I don’t think much of anything can survive here. A good thing too, because there are those who believe some kind of curse exists on the land. The Petrified Forest curse has been discussed for almost a century.
A Curse 225 Million Years in the Making
Quick geological history lesson, seriously I’ll make it quick. About 225 million years ago, what is now modern Arizona was near the equator when all the continents were connected. At that time, what is now the Petrified Forest was a tropical forest. A process called permineralization is what turned the trees into the petrified fossils they are today.
By the 1850s, many settlers started cashing in on the sale of the fossilized trees. In 1906, Theodore Roosevelt created Petrified Forest National Monument to protect the land and resources. The Petrified Forest became a National Park in 1962.
The Petrified Forest Curse Starts Circulating
Sometime around the 1930s, discussion of the Petrified Forest curse began circulating. Visitors to the Petrified Forest started reporting bad luck after they removed petrified wood from the monument. They would mail the fossils back along with a letter apologizing for stealing. In the letter, they would describe a string of bad luck they were experiencing. They believed it came from taking petrified wood.
These letters started a rumor that the Petrified Forest had some kind of curse on it. The land was once home to Hopi, Zuni, and Navajo tribes. Many say this connection to Indigenous tribes could be the source of the Petrified Forest curse.
The Origins of the Petrified Forest Curse
Navajos believed the logs of petrified trees to be those of an ancient monster named Yeitso. Yeitso was a giant beast that ate humans. Twin brothers, Monster Slayer and Born of Water, defeated the beast. The petrified logs in the Petrified Forest are said to be his bones. The land is sacred to the Navajo, so the tribes avoided even touching the petrified wood. This mix of traditional Native culture and folklore has fueled the legend of the curse.
Letters from those who took and then returned petrified wood are displayed in the visitor center. A small display box is even dedicated to the legend of the curse. A pile of returned fossils is known as the Conscience Pile.
Is it Cursed? Officially, No
I asked one of the park rangers working there about the letters and the Petrified Forest curse. When I brought it up, she just kind of smirked with a little laugh. She did not believe the curse was real, and I was probably the millionth person to ask her about it. She said that she and her coworkers think people just feel guilty about stealing and return the stolen fossils. I then asked about the Conscience Pile. She said the idea is to keep the park looking the way it has for millions of years. Simply placing the returned fossils randomly would destroy the natural aesthetic.
It’s in the same vein as Pele’s Curse — taking volcanic rock from Hawaii — or the Uluru curse in Australia. The curses all seem to be fabrications made by park officials to deter visitors from stealing. But they are all on sacred land, so there’s this element of tradition and culture that’s not understood by colonizers.
Get Your Curse Free Petrified Wood
So the official park statement is that there is no Petrified Forest curse. It’s folklore that has circulated for a century, fueled by Native beliefs. Here’s some evidence to debunk the curse. There are a few gift shops in the area that sell petrified wood. These places claim that there is no curse — or I suppose that by buying from them, you are getting curse-free fossils. Not all of the Petrified Forest is protected land; some is private property. These property owners extract and sell the petrified wood.
Enter Jim Gray’s Petrified Wood Company. Now I love a good rock shop, and this one is amazing. This place is massive — it’s like a rock and mineral convention, but all day, every day. Old Jim owns a bunch of land in the area; that’s where he gets his supply of petrified wood. He also has just about every other kind of rock or mineral you could want.
Wacky Roadside Attraction
His most famous artifact in the store is Wild Bill, a 2.9-million-year-old alligator fossil. Wild Bill is not for sale; he’s just a part of Jim’s private collection. Oddly enough, Wild Bill is an import — he’s from Florida. He has nothing to do with Arizona or the Petrified Forest. But when you’ve got Jim Gray money, the world’s your oyster, babe.
So taking petrified wood from the Petrified Forest causes a curse, but buying from Jim equals no curse? I’m not sure what to make of this, but I did not steal from the Petrified Forest National Park. I did buy some from Jim Gray.
See the Land for Yourself
I will, however, recommend going to the Petrified Forest. Curse or not, this place is the kind of liminal space you need in your life. It’s located directly on Route 66, and there is something about northern Arizona I can’t explain. All I will say is that spending time in northern Arizona made me understand skinwalkers. Like, if I lived there, I’d want to be a skinwalker. There’s something super existential about the land. It’s vast and eerie, and it feels devoid of all life.
I don’t recommend taking petrified wood from the Petrified Forest. But if you do, please let me know what happens. It’s for research purposes, so it’s important I know about any Petrified Forest–related curse that arises.
Happy hunting.
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