The Petrified Forest National Park in eastern Arizona is expanding by 26,500 acres following a land deal with the estate of a local rancher, reported the New York Times.
The acquisition enlarges the park about 25 percent. The new land is to the east and west of its current boundaries.
The Times had some details about the long-percolating land deal involving Marvin Hatch:
Negotiations stretched over years, but a deal was never reached.
“He was firm,” Mr. Ford said of the owner. “He wanted $500 an acre. He believed it was worth considerably more than that and he locked on that number.”
When talks failed, Mr. Hatch sought to turn the land into a private park, building giant concrete dinosaurs along I-40 to attract visitors to a museum and natural area that he billed the International Petrified Forest. Scientists feared that the private effort would lead to the poaching of fossils and petrified remains by tourists.
After Mr. Hatch died several years ago, with his park never truly taking off, his sons re-started talks to sell the ranchland. The agreed-upon price was $300 an acre, which came to roughly $8 million, officials said.
Route 66 once went right through the park, and it has a display devoted to the remnants of the Mother Road there.
It’s unknown how this land acquisition will affect access — if at all — to the ruins of the Painted Desert Trading Post, which is east of the park’s main entrance on Pinta Road.
It looks as if access to the Painted Desert Trading Post is already cut off. From the Historic Route 66 forum:
“Bad news everyone! The old Painted Desert Trading Post is now INACCESSIBLE, according to a fellow traveler in the 66 Yahoo group:
“Yesterday, I made a side trip to that segment of abandoned US 66 east of Petrified Forest National Park accessed from Pinta Road (the one with the Painted Desert Trading Post) –
…well, I tried to make the side trip, anyway.
There is now a locked barbed-wire gate across the road where it meets the old 66 alignment – fortunately, painted bright pink so you can see it. Don’t know who put it up or when.”
Yes, but that may change, depending on what land the National Park Service acquired.
Hope it opens again. We really enjoyed visiting the trading post and bridge a couple years ago. Drove all the way to the east fence of the park. The road is in rough shape and couldn’t take much traffic. Last June we found the gate locked and were really disappointed.
ll of the Hatch Ranch property is located south of Interstate 40 o it won’t affect the current lack of access to the old Painted Desert Trading Post property. Here’s the description of the Hatch Ranch location – The Hatch Ranch is located south of Interstate 40 and the Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railway. The ranch begins east of Puerco Pueblo and Blue Mesa, excluding section numbers 11, 7, 1, 31 and 29, to the east and north of Puerco Pueblo; and sections 19, 31 and 33, east of Blue Mesa. A few sections of the ranch are located south of the railroad to the west of Newspaper Rock, including sections 7, 8, 19, 30, and a portion of 31.
With Arizona’s state parks struggling to survive due to a widespread lack of funding, I’m concerned the success of the Conservation Fund and National Park Service in acquiring the 26,500 acres of Petrified Forest land might actually hurt the remaining parks’ rehabilitation. It might even deter those from realizing the dire concerns and needs of the rest of our state parks. Do you think the new acreage will send out a misconception that the parks no longer suffer a funding and tourism issue in the state of Arizona? Will this positive news communicate that Arizona’s parks and recreation issues are a thing of the past? Although this is a huge step in the right direction, I’m worried about a decrease in overall concern.
I’ve given your questions some thought, and my overarching conclusion is that the National Park Service and the Petrified Forest National Park need to concentrate on their own needs and not worry about what the state of Arizona does.
And if the state of Arizona has issues or perception problems with its parks, it’s up to the state to convey or correct those issues.