A pile of petrified wood, taken from the national park and mailed back with pleas of atonement.
Inside of the Petrified Forest National Park in Arizona, an unassuming pile of mixed stones stands, unmarked, off a private service road. This pile is entirely made of petrified wood, ranging in size from mere slivers to entire logs, and widely varying in color, origin species, and replacement minerals. These are the so-called "conscience rocks"– fossils taken from the park and returned, sometimes decades later, with letters asking forgiveness.
The Petrified Forest is known for its Late Triassic tree fossils. These trees had their organic material replaced by stone through a process of mineralization, with logs periodically buried in volcanic silt and flooded by silica-rich water some 230 million years ago. The park contains nine species of fossil trees, all extinct. Rainbow-colored and sparkling, they positively litter the ground of the park. Visitors– perhaps unsurprisingly– sometimes slip them into pockets, socks, and (in at least one instance) the entire back seat of a Volvo stationwagon.
Arrive "The Mystery of the Conscience Wood", a visitor's center exhibition that documents these stones' precipitous returns. A three ring binder contains thousands of letters of apology, anger, and fear. They say things like:
- “You’re right; it’s a curse to take wood from the forest. My girlfriend of three years finished with me on the drive home. So here’s your damn wood back.”
- THE FINAL STRAW WAS WHEN I STEPPED THRU THE CEILING OF OUR NEW HOUSE. THAT’S WHEN I TOLD MY WIFE. I’VE HAD ENOUGH. I’M SENDING IT BACK.
- "Please return to the Crystal Forest. It sparkled and the devil made me pick it up. I can't live with it anymore."
Some letters even detail exactly where the stones were found, with diagrams– but they can't be returned to these spots without rendering them useless for further scientific study. So instead, they languish in the conscience pile, a hodgepodge of stones that make the missing parts of thousands of trees– piled together as if they grew that way.
