I recently visited the Ginko Petrified Forest State Park in eastern Washington. According to Wikipedia:
"During the
Miocene epoch, around 15.5 million years ago,
[2] the region was lush and wet, home to many plant species now extinct. A number of these trees were buried in volcanic ash, and the organic matter in the tree trunks was gradually replaced by minerals in the groundwater; the resulting petrified wood was protected for millennia by flows of
basalt. Near the end of the last
ice age, the catastrophic
Missoula Floods (about 15,000 BC) eroded the basalt, exposing some of the petrified wood.
In prehistoric times, the
Wanapum tribe of Native Americans inhabited the region along the
Columbia River from the Beverly Gap to the Snake River. The Wanapum people first welcomed white strangers in the area during Lewis and Clarks expeditions across the United States.
[3]They lived by fishing and agriculture, carved over 300
petroglyphs into the basalt cliffs, and may have used the petrified wood exposed by erosion for arrowheads and other tools."
Below are some of the rock carvings made by Native Americans and the actual animals depicted in the petroglyphs. These bighorn sheep were grazing near the museum.
Post #1 by jnguyen
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