Native American figure beside a petrified log, southwestern United States, circa 1940

About this postcard

A figure in a red blanket and blue trousers stands at the left end of a long, deeply fissured log of petrified wood lying on an arid, stone-strewn plain under a pale blue sky. The scene is a classic view of the petrified forests of the American Southwest, where Triassic-era trees were replaced by silica over millions of years and now lie exposed as red and ochre stone logs; such formations drew tourists to the Petrified Forest region of northern Arizona from the early twentieth century onward. The figure in blanket and headband is a costumed staffage typical of commercial postcard views of the period.