Editing Florissant Formation (section)

==History==

The name ''Florissant'' comes from the French word for flowering. In the late 19th century tourist and excavators came to this location to observe the wildlife and collect samples for collections and study. The Petrified Forest, which is one of the main attractions at the monument today, lost much of its mass due to collectors removing large amounts of [[petrified wood]] from the site.<ref name="book">{{cite book |last1=Meyer |first1=Herbert W. |title=The fossils of Florissant |date=2003 |publisher=Smithsonian Books |location=Washington, D.C. |isbn=978-1588341075}}</ref>

During the 1860s and 1870s the area was mapped by geologists for the first time. Geologists of the [[Hayden Survey]] visited the area in the early 1870s, and fossil plants from the beds were described by [[Leo Lesquereux]], fossil insects by [[Samuel Hubbard Scudder]], and vertebrate fossils by [[Edward Drinker Cope]].<ref name="Veach, 2008">{{cite journal |last1=Veach |first1=S.W. |last2=Meyer |first2=H.W. |year=2008 |title=History of Paleontology at the Florissant Fossil Beds, Colorado |journal=Geological Society of America Special Paper |volume=435 |pages=1–18 |isbn=9780813724355 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=-OcQecTR5_QC&dq=Veach%2C%20S.%20W.%2C%20Meyer%2C%20H.W.%20(2008).%20History%20of%20Paleontology%20at%20the%20Florissant%20Fossil%20Beds%2C%20Colorado.%20Geological%20Society%20of%20America%2C%20Special%20Paper%20435%2C%20p.%201-18&pg=PA1 |access-date=28 October 2021}}</ref> The formation was first formally named as the Florissant Lake Beds by [[Charles Whitman Cross]] in 1894.<ref name=Cross1894>{{cite journal |last1=Cross |first1=Whitman |author1-link=Charles Whitman Cross |year=1894 |title=Pikes Peak folio, Colorado, with a description of Cripple Creek special map by R.A.F. Penrose, Jr. |journal=U.S. Geological Survey Geologic Atlas of the United States Folio |volume=GF-7 |url=https://ngmdb.usgs.gov/Prodesc/proddesc_2475.htm |access-date=28 October 2021}}</ref>

In 1969, the Florissant Fossil Bed National Monument was established after a long legal battle between local land owners and the federal government. Today, the park receives approximately 60,000 visitors a year, and is the site of ongoing paleontological investigations.<ref name = "Veach, 2008"/><ref>Meyer, H. W. & Weber, L. (1995). Florissant Fossil Beds National Monument: Preservation of an Ancient Ecosystem. Rocks and Minerals, v. 70, p. 232-239</ref> The formation itself was renamed the Florissant Formation in 2001 to conform with the requirements of the North American Commission on Stratigraphic Nomenclature.<ref name=EvanoffEtal2001>{{cite journal |last1=Evanoff |first1=Emmett |last2=McIntosh |first2=W.C. |last3=Murphey |first3=P.C. |year=2001 |title=Stratigraphic summary and Ar/Ar geochronology of the Florissant Formation, Colorado |journal=Denver Museum of Nature and Science Proceedings |volume=4 |number=1 |pages=1–16}}</ref>