Sawn Alabama petrified wood

Very nice James. Been wondering about you and that hoarde of Alabama pet wood.

Very nice looking! I had no idea there was pet wood in Alabama!

Wow. Very nice. You've clearly been busy. Oh, and it's looking like you might be needing a snorkel for your FJ. That picture with the puddle was a close one.

Some of the photos make it look like there is some sparkle. Really cool!

Well the wood was well received ! Thanks for the words. As destiny would have it the park ranger gave us a warning about taking anything out of the National Forest the first time I invited friends.

I stocked up last year by August 2022 and had not been back since. Last week I finally invited several friends and the ranger must have seen the extra vehicles and got involved. This was no surprise, the park doesn't want 100's of rock hunters carrying away all the rocks I suppose. Perhaps when it was just me collecting last year alone she looked the other way...she seemed to have no idea it was pet wood and we didn't tell her !

Ranger said it would be ok to collect tumbles from the road cut that cut right thru the wood deposit for 300 yards. It is actually some of the best material as the grading machine broke thru a wide variety of some of the prettiest material. Plus there is a long rogue 3 acre lot that is privately owned with creek cut for 300 yards that seems unmanaged that is loaded with wood.

Much of it is not the best lapidary quality due to fractures. It is all the same species. It does not appear to be wood as it has no knots or variable growth rings meaning it appears to be a vascular plant like a perennial. Insect borings have been found in it... No surprise, north of this location is petrified horsetail(equisetum) that is 10-12 inches in diameter, so a vascular perennial plant that had gotten giant during perhaps the dino age.

One of the guys that came with a friend is a senior at Auburn University and a geology major. He is taking samples to Auburn to perform taxonomy. Maybe they can nail the species, so far two other Universities could not. Auburn is only 20 miles away, probably best if the school did field trips there. Great experience for geology students...

My buddy is Mr. Trip Report, we were plant collectors and business competitors for 25 years back in the day. Both ex explorers, both broken down lol, he took photos:

www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=10161528785491535&set=pcb.10161528785516535

This site is at the old 350'- 380' elevation shoreline of an ancient ocean Mr. Larry.
The mill pond has a 300 foot long 16 feet tall and 10 feet thick dam made mostly out of 100-300 pound chunks of pet wood. It is filled with pet wood.
This site is the terminus of a 150 mile long cove starting west and ending here at the east. Prevailing winds are from the west.
It appears logs got trapped at/in the mill pond when the ocean was receding and logs got jammed at the mouth of the narrow gorge and trapped them.
North is up. Water flow drainage is south and down. Site is a volcanic clay aquifer that is 3 counties in size. The volcanic clay must have done the petrifying...

To find the site I simply sampled creeks staring 50 miles downstream at bridge crossings in the area going upstream for increased wood occurrence till the source was found. Out of 15 creeks this one seems to supply 90% of the downstream wood. A creek that cuts thru the dense deposit. Adjacent and feeder creeks also rich in wood.

jamesp A couple of those rocks pictured in the album look oddly familiar!! Not sure how they got in my garage!!  When I get  some time I will post a couple of pictures of two or three of them polished. 

As you mentioned it does not look like the material is from trees, the grain is wrong. Some sort of giant plant, somewhere between Palm and Bamboo.

The photos show a thorough sampling pebblesky. I tried to find the best of the best like solid fire opalized chunks . Oh well, never happened.

The wood varied mostly vertically from dry ground at 380' elevation down to wet ground at 320' elevation and not so much from east west north south. Large logs upstream, smaller pieces moving downstream suggesting a log jam.

1dave mentioned a comet impact and perhaps that was the culprit, something catastrophic had to happen.

The Nat Forest guys have been filling those mud holes up with gravel Dave. The 4wd clan likes to play at that location. They better not get caught off the numbered roads or the lady park officer will inflict punishment on them. She is strict. There is a gun range in that park that is used heavily suggesting they allow some freedoms.
It is not very common out east to find a large chunk of land where such a deposit can be surveyed over it's entire area making this an interesting geological occurrence to explore.