🔎 UNIDENTIFIED Petrified Forest National Park.

[ToddsPoint]

The Petrified Forest was made a National Monument in 1906. It became a National Park in 1962. Here’s a pic taken there of some wood.

Collecting petrified wood was forbidden after 1906. However, there is a 50,000 acre ranch that butts against the park called the Milky Ranch. It was possible to collect pet wood there for a fee up until the 70s. The ranch is now for sale and closed to legal collecting. A neighbor of mine visited the ranch in the 60s and brought home some wood. I was very lucky and acquired a piece from him.

I cut the piece in half on my rock saw. I’m saving the upper part just like it is.

The lower half I’m slabbing and making into jewelry. The wood is loaded with cracks and the slabs fall apart on the cracks. I’ll end up making a lot of small cabs. I’m trying to salvage all I can. These are some smalls.

These are larger pieces but some of these will fail as I start working them.

I managed to finish three cabs so far with no cracks. Many more to come hopefully.

 

[BennyV]

So let me get this straight the ranch is for sale but if you buy it you can’t collect from your own property?

Nice work by the way.

 

[Treasure_Hunter]

So let me get this straight the ranch is for sale but if you buy it you can’t collect from your own property?

Nice work by the way.

You can collect on your own property.

 

[ToddsPoint]

So let me get this straight the ranch is for sale but if you buy it you can’t collect from your own property?

Nice work by the way.

The government was in the process of buying part of the ranch and adding it to the park. I don’t know the status of that deal presently. I did read that the government figures about 12 tons a year are taken illegally from the park. I’m not sure how they figure that. One truckload or one rock at a time from tourists?

 

[BennyV]

Interesting.

 

[ToddsPoint]

These two failed. So many hidden cracks. Those pet wood logs have laid on the surface a long time. Frost gets to them I think.

 

[ToddsPoint]

I’m batting about .562 so far. Nine completed and 7 failures due to cracks. I think it’s worth it for hard to obtain material.

 

[Treasure_Hunter]

Look very nice polished.

 

[jewelerguy]

When I was about 12 years old my dad took us on a family vacation and we visited the Petrified Forest. It was a pretty interesting place. We also visited the Painted Desert, some Indian ruins (don't remember the name of the place), Sequoya National Forest, Yosemite National Park, Death Valley, and several other places. It was a great trip.

 

[unclemac]

the 4 corners area is a MUST.... so much to see!

 

[newnan man]

I ruined a perfectly good chainsaw there once! Nice pics!

 

[ToddsPoint]

My rock shop is closed for the winter. It’s in my unheated barn.🥶 Saws cleaned and water drained from cabbing machine. I finished up all of the pet wood from AZ. It was rewarding but disappointing how much of it fell apart from cracks. At least some of the 230 mil yr old rocks survived. Very rare to have any legally obtained. I’d guess it would be available to a few locals out there in NE AZ. 😉

These are just a few of the failures. A few of the larger failures were turned into the small cabs. It was definitely frustrating!🥴