Mining Petrified Wood

All of our ancient wood is mined in northern Arizona on private land within the Chinle Formation. This is the same 225-200 million year old geological formation in which the Petrified Forest National Park is located, and in which the world’s most colorful petrified wood was created.

Most of the sizable logs are long gone from the surface of the land. Therefore it is necessary to locate them underground. This is accomplished by crisscrossing an area in a very large, powerful bulldozer with a ripper hook attached to the back. The hook extends 6 to 10 feet into the ground. When the hook snags something, an excavator or backhoe is brought in to dig it out. If the object proves to be a petrified log and/or root ball, then the work of digging it out begins.

Considering that each raw log can weigh hundreds to thousands of pounds, mining is a hot, heavy, labor intensive endeavor. Hopefully the log can be removed in its entirety. However, if it is over the legal road limit, it must be cut in the field before it can be loaded onto a truck and transported to the location where it will be examined, evaluated, and processed.

Until the log or root ball is finally sawed open, there is no exact way of determining how much of it, if any, is usable. Sawing into each new piece is like opening a gift of the earth. Each gift holds the promise of its own unique beauty. A promised fulfilled when the polishing is complete.

The private land that might be available for commercial mining is gradually disappearing as the government continues to buy and regulate huge tracts of land within the Chinle and other formations. Although there is believed to be much more petrified wood underground, it does not appear the government will open these areas to commercial mining. This creates a dwindling supply of large pieces of Araucarioxylon arizonicum (Araucarian Pine). Therefore, once the remaining private land is mined out, and previously mined logs are sold, it is unlikely that new large pieces of this unique wood will ever be available. Ancient wood is not a renewable resource.