Do you find petrified wood?

[jinman]

I'm always finding chunks of petrified wood on my property. The largest I've found is about 1/2 the size of a loaf of bread. I've found many pieces between 4" to 6" long and up to 2" in diameter. I could pick up several pieces each time I take a walk or do any tractor work.

Yesterday, my neighbor stopped by to pick up some diesel cans and buy me some tractor fuel. I do things for him all the time and maintain his ATV trails by grading and donating gravel where needed. A couple of times a year, he will buy me 20 gallons of diesel. Anyhow, he told me that his son and a friend had found a huge chunk of petrified wood on their deer lease and loaded it into their truck. They had to use their deer lift to get the chunk into the truck after digging it up out of the ground. He wanted me to use my tractor to lift the fossil and put it on display in front of his guest cabin. He estimated that the piece weighed 500 lb, but I'd say more like 300. It was about 2-1/2' long and 18" diameter at the widest point. If I did not know it was petrified, I would have thought it was an old rotting log instead of petrified wood. One touch dispels all doubt. It is rock!

Now, the dummy part. I moved the rock with my tractor and sat there talking about it without ever thinking to take a picture of it. Sheesh! I had my cell phone in my pocket the whole time. I will try to remember to get a photo today and post it. I know it didn't happen until I post a photo.

I am curious as to how many TBNers find petrified wood on their property? It's quite common here, and an old antique gasoline station in Decatur, TX used chunks of petrified wood on the outside instead of brick as a veneer.

 

[forgeblast]

I took a local geology class, and we went to a place near scranton, pa on private property that had stumps sticking out of the ground. It was really cool seeing them.
It was in a shale quarry that never developed.

 

[brin]

Here in Georgia, 45 miles east of Atlanta I have never found any petrified wood on our farm but I have found pieces of real old handmade pottery and one person that looked at some of what I had found thought it was from the Cherokee Indians...wish I could find out for sure..I always have this daydream I will be out bush hogging and hear a clunk and find an old buried chest of gold...LOL....not so far...Looking forward to the pics.

 

[Dan Hunter]

No petrified wood but the PO found dinosaur bones. I found a piece of petrified dino poop.

 

[Western]

Jim, I have only found a few small pieces here, but found quite a bit on our farm outside Hico Tx. Is what you're finding the normal White or light Brown??
Would like to see the photo you get.

For years I have told my daughter and wife about the "Petrified Forrest" in AZ. and was finally able to take them out, If I can recover the photos from a dead hard drive I'll post a few. One of the most amazing places to visit.

 

[Western]

Hope the photos work, the trees where huge.

 

[Bigfoot62]

Jim, we actually have a lot of it here. This area was the ancient coastline. A nearby creek cuts through a soapstone formation. There, you can find fossilized fish, coral, seashells, etc. The most desirable, and most beautiful, of the local petrified wood is the palm wood. Some of it is really colorful and it has the "straws" (veins) that give it contrast.

 

[Taylortractornut]

We find alot at the landfill. Its i na really sandy area. We have to save clay and topsoild for the final cover of the landfill in the future. We hit clayey silt and use tha t for cover. I hit soem really coarse sand on a cut on the scraper and saw some white and orange flakes on the ground on my next pass on the scraper. I got off and dug around. I stopped the scraper and got the D5 and dug a round it then got my old 3550 Ford backhoe I leave out there. I dug down the sides and found about a 10 inch diameter 6 foot section of log.

I had folks tell me this was just a sand rock but its white. That it was just a freaky bleaced log. then I show them that it was taken 20 down from the natural top of the hill and 40 fro mthe face of the slope. Not thinking any more about it I was o nthe scraper in the same area and hit something that gave me a little jar. I turned around and saw a large chunk of white. I dug it up and it was a large stump. Almost too big to tote with my loader forks. Its in my dad and step moms yard with a will drawn up that when they kick It will come back to my yard.

 

[jinman]

Well, here are some photos. The first and second picture show the relative size to a big sandstone rock that was all my tractor could move when I previously moved it. You can also judge the size from the size of the oak leaves. The final picture shows the grain of the wood and how it looks just like an old log. When you touch it, it is cold and hard. My neighbor's son went back to the deer lease today to look for more.

 

[jinman]

Hope the photos work, the trees where huge.

Dennis, those are very impressive photos.:thumbsup: We were driving through AZ a couple of years ago and saw several big petrified logs laying in the field beside the Interstate. They looked to be 3'+ in diameter and 25' to 30' long. They weren't in any park, but just outside the ROW fence. I've never been to the Petrified Forest, but would love to go.

 

[Western]

Dennis, those are very impressive photos.:thumbsup: We were driving through AZ a couple of years ago and saw several big petrified logs laying in the field beside the Interstate. They looked to be 3'+ in diameter and 25' to 30' long. They weren't in any park, but just outside the ROW fence. I've never been to the Petrified Forest, but would love to go.

Jim, you must have been on I-40, there is quite a few laying East of Flagstaff just North a few miles from the "PT". Some of those logs are over 60' long.
They have a rock museum at the South entrance where you can get some nice cuts that have been polished, all sizes depending on how deep your pockets are.

It is a nice trip from here since you can go North of Flagstaff to also see the Grand Canyon. make a fun 4-5 day trip if you poke around on the way. A tip if you go, as you head North from the Petrified Forest, you will drive by a state monument. It is an Indian dwelling with original foundations. There is usually a state guy there to, even in Jan when we went. Across the 2 lane road from the parking area, there are some small rock out cropping s, I had asked the State fella if I could poke around over there and look for any more Indian writing (hieroglyphics) he said "sure".
We found a ton of Indian drawings on the rocks there and no tourist!! Heres some photos. The 1st is the foundation of the Indian dwellings, next 2 are drawings we found over the road, last is one of the Grand Canyon.

 

[Bill 55]

I have a small chunk about 5 inches wude by 4 inches long that is about 3 inches thick lying on the counter by the tv that I dug out of a creek bank when I was a kid. At one time I had a big box of the stuff, but over the years it got away and I just have the one piece left. It isn't real hard but definitely has turned to rock. The area it came from had a lot of that old mucky blue limestine clay and the stuff was fairly soft and wet when I dug it out but it dried out over time. I would say it probably wasn't quite done fossilizing yet but I picked it anyway as I didn't figure I would be around when it was completely ripe

 

[tcreeley]

As a kid in western Mass we had our pig pen up on a hill and I'd carry a bucket of slops up every morning. The pigs would stand on this big flat rock out of the mud they made. One day the lady who sold us our property drove up and reminded my mother of her promise to give her that flat stone at the top of the hill. Sure, My bother and I dug out the flat rock for the lady and flipping it over we understood why she wanted it. There was a dino print clear as any thing. We loaded it into her trunk and she drove home a few miles away.

 

[Duffster]

Do you find petrified wood?

Is that what those purple pill commercials warns you about that after 4 hours you should see a Dr?

:laughing::laughing:

 

[forgeblast]

Western awesome pictures!!

 

[Western]

Is that what those purple pill commercials warns you about that after 4 hours you should see a Dr?
:laughing::laughing:

That would have been a "woody"

Western awesome pictures!!

Thanks, Sure was fun at the time and very few tourist, except at the Grand Canyon. It was probably a wind chill in the teens and there was my family and most of Asia. I mean maybe 1000, no joke.
Funny part, I told my wife "lets get one of these tourist to take our photo" she replies "they don't know how to use our camera" All i could say is "honey, they make the **** things"

 

[woodchuckie]

We find it in the logging roads where they have cut through a hill. It's the white brittle limestone type. I have one piece which is about 3 feet long and goes from maybe 10 inches at one end and tapered to the other end. It looks like a broken or splintered log. It is very heavy but I don't have a way to weigh it.

 

[txdon]

Here's one my uncle found while bulldozing in Lee County. I put a quarter on it. It's about nine feet long.

 

[Western]

Here's one my uncle found while bulldozing in Lee County. I put a quarter on it. It's about nine feet long.

Don, that is the nicest looking one I have ever seen anywhere in Texas. What a show piece.

 

[jinman]

Don, that's awesome! Having the hole (knot-hole?) where a limb branched off is really nice. I'm sure when your uncle hit the piece, he probably thought it was just a big rock. I wonder how long it took him to realize it was something really special?

My neighbor and his son came over yesterday and brought me a present. They left me two basketball sized chunks of petrified wood. A trip back to their deer lease netted them two 5-gal buckets of small chunks and about 4 chunks the size of a basketball or big watermelon. They were all in the same area as the bigger piece in my photos above. Since the area is not in a creekbed or gully, most of the pieces were completely buried in the dirt. There's no telling what might be a few feet down in this spot. All the chunks have the same characteristics and look like they came from the same tree.