The Aunt Who Sends Rocks

March 30
Holbrook, AZ

Dear Courtney & Timmy,

Uncle John is laughing at me. I just sent you a package and he says, “You sent our niece and nephew cotton, and now you’re sending rocks? What kind of a weird aunt are you?”

I guess pretty weird. But I get excited about things I have never seen before, and want to share them with you.

First, one of the rocks is a polished piece of petrified wood from the Petrified Forest in Arizona. Here’s the story: During the dinosaur age, that desert area of Arizona was a lush and humid jungle. Trees grew and died and with the change of weather they were eventually buried under three major layers of dirt and silica (and something else) that preserved them from rotting. The silica seeped into the xylem and phloem of the wood and turned it into rock – quartz, mica, hematite, even amethyst, which are all semiprecious stones.

Millions of years later, upheavals in the earth cause these stone trees to come up through the layers of rock that had preserved them. I took some pictures, and the land is covered with what looks like uncut wood from a woodpile, except when you get close up and see that they are petrified. The bigger specimens actually still look like whole trees. Amazing.

I also got you a couple of bracelets made of polished bits of petrified wood so you could see all the colors.

Later, we went through the Painted Desert where you could easily see all the layers of sediment that piled up over time.

When we arrived at our campground in Holbrook, Arizona, it was surrounded by all these really strange, really black boulders. When I asked about them, the camp host told me they were lava. Mt. Taylor, nearby, erupted 225,000 years ago, blew off its peak, and spewed lava in the area. It hasn’t blown since. That lava I sent you is 225,000 years old. Doesn’t look like much, but still …

Look, I know you guys are sophisticated teens and almost teens, about the coolest people I know in this world. But I hope these rocks will mean something to you, even if it’s just that your weird aunt and crazy uncle are thinking of you as we bop around this country. We would have wrapped up the horses and sent them, but I wasn’t sure your parents would appreciate two more mouths to feed.

See you soon, I promise.
Love
Aunt Betty