Not sure exactly what these rock are called but we call them petrified trees. Not sure in pictures can see how the growth rings show up but very clear to see. The rock is like an agate almost with that clear see through image and very heavy. This one is about the size of a football. So what is it and the name.

It is petrified wood. Petrification happens when the wood is rapidly buried and then water seeps in over a long time depositing silica, as the wood decomposes slowly, giving it a place to go. The silica probably made quartz or chalcedony in the piece you have.

I've had pieces of petrified wood since I was a child. It's fairly valuable. Some is filled with opal too.

Keith

Thanks Keith. I kicked that stuff around for years and today I packed that piece out about 1 mile. That stuff is beautiful.

Great find!

Very cool piece!

You're welcome. How big is that piece? I would be hauling as much out as I could find and carry to sell.

Keith

A foot long Keith. Everything would need to be packed out of foot.

It is agatized wood, harder than woodpecker lips.

Almost as hard to split as dead standing hickory.

That's probably worth about $100.00 retail as is around here. Sliced into sections and buffed, you could probably piece it out for around $500.00.

Rock collectors, stone jewelry makers and people with fish aquariums would pay well for that.

I had a friend who managed a pet store. He used to occasionally buy a pickup load of pretty colored, glass slag, that was collected near some of the old furnaces in Ohio for $500.00, by "dumb hillbillies". In the stores it would sell for $16.00 a pound and net around $20,000.00 retail after being distributed to the other 36 stores in the chain. He thought they were dumb for selling it so cheap. They probably thought he was dumb for buying it for so much.

Keith

Interesting!! I like that story and so true in many things in life.