Ironic Monument at Arizona Capitol

A variety of monuments surround the Arizona Capitol building. Many feature Arizona rocks. Among them is an Arizona shaped monument made of copper ore bearing rock, and one displaying petrified wood (see below).  Copper bearing rock and petrified wood are both prominent features of Arizona’s unique geology.

However, the caption beneath the petrified wood display is, following the botched Arizona centennial, quite ironic. It reads:

     A nation that forgets its past has no future.

A significant part of Arizona’s past, the once top rated Arizona Mining and Mineral Museum, was not only forgotten but destroyed as part of misguided centennial celebration preparations. The destruction was done by the Arizona Historical Society.

Compounding the madness, the replacement, the Arizona Experience Museum, was to feature the future.  The result is an empty building where students once learned about Arizona’s unique past nearly every school day.

A hidden past and no future?

(Terry Dyer photos)