VISITORS ’ GEOLOGICAL CONCEPTIONS AND MEANING MAKING AT PETRIFIED

When observing the natural landscape at National Parks, how do visitors make meaning of the geology? Interpretative geologic displays and programs here are typically uninformed by knowledge of visitor conceptions. Visitors ’ ideas about geological processes and landscape formation at Petrified Forest National Park in Arizona were investigated by interviewing 80 visitor groups (N = 235) at a landscape overlook and analyzing the results using Verbal Analysis methodology. Visitors were asked to explain landscape formation, depositional environments, and regional uplift of the Colorado Plateau. In the absence of normative geological knowledge about the landscape, visitors frequently used familiar-place knowledge: a connection to a particular place with which the visitor has had experience. Qualitative data analysis indicates that visitors: (1) relate landscapes to familiar places, (2) build on religious explanations, (3) superimpose past landscapes on modern ones, (4) patch together bits of information from media sources, and (5) have problems visualizing climatic change. Drawing on these findings, specific recommendations for design and implementation of new interpretative geological displays and programs are presented