Found in the Crushed Gravel of a Railroad Bed, Downtown Spokane, WA

[airborne1092]

As the title says, I don't know much about fossilized wood but the holes tube thingies look like I'd imagine a palm wood, would. Taking up large amounts of water and transporting it to the top of the tree. This chunk is about fist-sized, it's about 4" square, so I figured the rock crusher for the aggregate was probably a 4" screen as the top and bottom looks sheared off; or perhaps the bottom is the root flare (albeit rebated) and it made it through the crusher nicely and only sheared off 4" above that. The bottom end looks like an artichoke heart and would indicate to me a fast growing tree with shallow or weak/delicate roots~

I welcome your thoughts, and thank you for taking a look! 🤔

 

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[ConceptualizedNetherlandr]

Looks sorta like coral?

 

[airborne1092]

Looks sorta like coral?

Sounds intriguing - tell me more!
Aggregate is usually sourced from quarries locally as it's too cheap to spend much on transporting it. However, thinking about a railroad, simply hooking up one more train car full of aggregate and taking it where you might need it sounds more plausible. In this line of thinking, wood or coral, it may have come from somewhere like NV, UT, or MT a likely place for coral, I would guess. I would be surprised if this hunk came from the Spokane area - we have basalt coming out of our ears, unless this particular hunk was quarried out of a pit that ran deep or located on a thinner veneer of basalt, before the floes covered our area, which in turn means it may be as old as 20mil years, or older!

 

[ToddsPoint]

When I was a kid my cousin and I walked a mile to the RR tracks to shoot our 22s. They had just added fresh ballast to the tracks. It was limestone and was full of trilobites. There were literally millions of them. I didn’t know what they were and only took one home. I was young and dumb and could have made some money. 🤑

 

[ConceptualizedNetherlandr]

When I was a kid my cousin and I walked a mile to the RR tracks to shoot our 22s. They had just added fresh ballast to the tracks. It was limestone and was full of trilobites. There were literally millions of them. I didn’t know what they were and only took one home. I was young and dumb and could have made some money. 🤑

Perhaps there are some still there?

 

[ToddsPoint]

Perhaps there are some still there?

I had that idea too. I first saw the trilobites around 1963-64. I went back in 1972 or 73 and the ballast was all filled in and weedy. There’s a quarry somewhere that has them. The railroad can access quarries hundreds miles away. It’s no telling where they came from.

 

[ConceptualizedNetherlandr]

I had that idea too. I first saw the trilobites around 1963-64. I went back in 1972 or 73 and the ballast was all filled in and weedy. There’s a quarry somewhere that has them. The railroad can access quarries hundreds miles away. It’s no telling where they came from.

Some at the RR might know. But that face of the quarry is long gone.