Dinosaurs once roamed PWC

You don’t have to go far from our area to go back hundreds of millions of years in time – in fact, you don’t even have to leave Prince William County. Prince William Forest Park, managed by the National Park Service since 1936, offers the prehistoric visit.

“Who doesn’t love geology?” asks Laura Cohen, a ranger and chief of interpretation at the park, which is celebrating its 75th anniversary this year. “Most people come here looking for the scenery. But very few people come here knowing it is the geology that creates the spectacular scenery.”

A prehistoric discovery awaits explorers at the park’s entrance: a 150-million-year-old piece of petrified wood – or wood that has turned into stone just outside the visitor’s center. The petrified wood was unearthed in the 1960s.

Watch your mailbox for your Observer news so you can read the full story on this park and for many other dinosaur-related stories.