Ancient Colorado; Pole Forest
Denver Public Art 1%
2005.4.1
Pole Forest
Garden of the Gods
300 million years ago
Our world changed dramatically over the last 300 million years. In the Pennsylvanian Period, Colorado was home to a long-lost mountain range known as the Ancestral Rockies. The mountain slopes were forested with lycopod trees that captured sunlight not only with their leaves, but also with their trunks and roots.
The Fountain Formation is a thick layer of dark red sandstone and conglomerate that formed as rivers flowed away from the Ancestral Rockies. Lycopod roots and gravel from the Ancestral Rockies are among the fossils found at the Garden of the Gods near Colorado Springs.
Garden of the Gods
300 million years ago
Our world changed dramatically over the last 300 million years. In the Pennsylvanian Period, Colorado was home to a long-lost mountain range known as the Ancestral Rockies. The mountain slopes were forested with lycopod trees that captured sunlight not only with their leaves, but also with their trunks and roots.
The Fountain Formation is a thick layer of dark red sandstone and conglomerate that formed as rivers flowed away from the Ancestral Rockies. Lycopod roots and gravel from the Ancestral Rockies are among the fossils found at the Garden of the Gods near Colorado Springs.
Jan Vriesen and Kirk Johnson (artist)