Petrified Forest Discovery in Washington state

Clyde Friend has discovered on his property a unique petrified forest which is in a standing state, most of the petrified trees found in the area are downed or horizontal, his finds are in the vertical position.

The trees are dated to be 15 million years and include hickory, elm, maple and sweetgum trees.

This is fascinating for those interested in archaeology and if you visit the link there are some more photos of his find. Some very nice finds recently in the US, the Roanoke Island find,the rainforest in Illinois, the ancient camel bones in the southwest and now this discovery, so far this has been a good year.

Rare surprise for Yakima man: a forest of stone

SOMEWHERE NEAR YAKIMA -- Clyde Friend was bulldozing a driveway around his shop when he first saw them in the dirt: gleaming pieces of the past. A forest of stone, more than 15 million years old.

For the past five years, on this hillside above Yakima, Friend has been pulling out pieces of rare petrified wood, no two pieces alike. Branches, trunks and slices in sunset colors. Pieces purple and blue as mussel shells. Pieces like winter sky, gray and white and all the tones in between. Pieces that ring like a bell when struck.

Awesome find! I have a friend who just returned from a month long trip around the country and he returned with some nice fish fossils and I hope to take pics on them and get a thread going with a little background story to share with the members here.

[edit on 2007/5/6 by JacKatMtn]

That is badass. I have a small peice of petrified wood, but I wish I had a whole tree, that would be so awesome.

I find stuff like this fascinating, and I'm glad that he discovered this treasure of history.


I wish I had some petrified marijuana to put in my room, that'd be sweet.

Originally posted by DirtyPete
That is badass. I have a small peice of petrified wood, but I wish I had a whole tree, that would be so awesome.

I never thought that you could find petrified trees in the upright position, it is definitely a cool find!

I wonder though, if he is just harvesting the trees and missing other fossils which could be of interest.