A Visit to Glen Rose, Texas

Most people may have never heard of Glen Rose, but among other things it’s a geologist’s paradise. It’s a couple miles away from Dinosaur Valley State Park, which offers the chance to see dinosaur footprints that are over 100 million years old. Those footprints are embedded in a strata of rock called the Glen Rose Formation, which stretches over a large area from South Central to North Central Texas. Glen Rose also has a wealth of buildings that offer architectural features consisting of petrified wood that is approximately 115 million years old. The story goes that in the 1920s area farmers started to use new equipment that tilled the land more deeply than before. All of a sudden some started uncovering a large amount of petrified wood. Local artisans began using this material in new buildings – many of which are still standing today.

A couple weeks ago my sister (who lives outside Fort Worth) and I visited Dinosaur Valley as well as Sycamore Grove, which is the ruin of a former gas station and speakeasy on the outskirts of Glen Rose. Here are some photos I created during that visit.