Why Visitors Return Stolen Petrified Wood to Arizona’s Petrified Forest

Taking even a small object from a national park is against the law. At Arizona’s Petrified Forest National Park, however, visitors who remove pieces of fossilized wood may also worry about something less official: a reputed curse attached to the stolen rocks. The belief is not enough to stop everyone. People continue to take samples of petrified wood from the park, according to Neatorama’s report on Brian Bolster’s mini-documentary, The Conscience Files. Some later return the pieces by mail, accompanying them with letters expressing regret or apologizing for what they did. Those letters sometimes describe misfortunes that the writers associate with the stolen rocks. The accounts do not establish that the petrified wood caused those events. Instead, the returned objects and their accompanying messages document how strongly the curse has become linked to the park’s missing stones in the minds of some visitors. The association can matter even to people who do not necessarily believe the curse is real. Neatorama reports that the connection between the rocks and subsequent trouble can produce a guilty conscience, prompting former visitors to send the pieces back. The park maintains an archive of these regret letters. Bolster was given access to the collection for The Conscience Files, which explores the stories surrounding returned petrified wood and the remorse expressed by the people who mailed it back. The result is an unusual record of souvenir-taking, superstition and conscience—but not evidence that the alleged curse is genuine.