Think of a place in your life that has been important to you, perhaps enough to shape or influence who you have become. This could be a place where you grew up, a place where something important happened that you will always remember, or something that was especially beautiful and meaningful in a personal or even spiritual way.
Heritage refers to something that comes to or belongs to one by reason of birth. When thinking of your heritage, what comes to mind? In law, heritage is a property 鈥� especially land 鈥� that is passed on by inheritance. Heritage can be created by others but usually we receive it not via personal effort but as a gift from one generation to the next.
The Geological Society of America has 22 divisions that focus on the many interests of geoscientists; one of them, the History and Philosophy Division, was recently renamed the "History, Philosophy, and Geoheritage Division," to emphasize the importance of recognizing places of special cultural, scientific, educational or aesthetic value. Some geologists focus on places that have had lasting impact on the development of geologic science, but I like to extend the term to consider places that have impacted our shared history and culture.
You might be surprised to learn that in Arizona 鈥� with all its geologic variety and splendor 鈥� there is only one formally designated Geoheritage site! It is in the Grand Canyon, but the 'Geoheritage' designation there refers to not the canyon itself but rather to a specific feature within it: the Great Unconformity, which can be viewed across Grand Canyon wherever Tapeats Sandstone rests upon much older rocks such as the Vishnu and Brahma Schists. It is a Geoheritage Site not only because of the spectacular way the unconformity is displayed in the canyon's walls, but also because the original recognition of the magnitude of this gap in the rock record was considered a major step forward in understanding the geological history of western North America.
You can probably think of several other places in Arizona worthy of similar recognition. Lists made by each of us would vary because we have all been impacted by public lands in different, personal ways. I offer one example that has been already recognized as public land worthy of preservation and protection but is currently not recognized as a US Geoheritage Site: Petrified Forest National Park. Petrified Forest was named Arizona's first National Monument largely through the efforts of John Muir, who lived for a time in Adamana, a settlement on the Santa Fe Railway just west of the current National Park boundary.
Muir's daughter Helen had a keen interest in trains and a case of pulmonary illness that the moist air around the Muir farm and orchards in Martinez, California could not cure. For a time in 1905鈥�06, Muir brought her to dry northeastern Arizona to recover. While Helen's health improved, Muir recognized the significance of this area for natural science. Muir was so impressed by the Petrified Forest area that he wrote a letter to his friend President Theodore Roosevelt, urging that it be protected. The result was that on December 8, 1906, Roosevelt used the Antiquities Act to establish two National Monuments in Arizona: Petrified Forest and Montezuma Castle. This was almost two years before the Grand Canyon was similarly designated. In 1962, Petrified Forest N.M. became a National Park.
Subsequent generations are fortunate for this protection. The Aqua de la Zorra near Uspallata, Argentina held a similar concentration of Triassic-age petrified trees that was visited by Charles Darwin in 1835 during the voyage of the Beagle and contributed to his view that nature was subject to gradual changes over vast amounts of time. The area was subsequently named Bosque Darwin. Sadly, due to lack of protection, very few petrified trees remain in this area.
The extent and manner of protection for public lands is a matter of ongoing debate and occasional controversy. Land policies administered by our Federal Government allow for multiple uses of our public lands, and sometimes these uses are in conflict. Ultimately, our choices around what to preserve and protect reflects societal values. What we choose to preserve and protect becomes part of the heritage we bequeath to our fellow American descendants.