The drive from Vicksburg to Jackson, on the same route Gen. Grant took in pursuit of the Confederate forces before the siege of Vicksburg, was surprisingly lovely. It was a beautiful clear, cold day.
For 90 percent of the history of the Earth, trees were absent from the landscape. Their roots did not anchor the soil, their branches did not shade the ground, and their massive bulk did not deflect the wind. The earliest fossil wood - palm tree-like trunks with fernlike branches - dates to the Middle Devonian period, 380 million years ago (see the blog for June 18 when we visited the Gilboa Forest in New York). Less than 100 million years later, trees had grown in variety and geographic extent to world dominance. Today, forests cover 30 percent of the land surface of Earth, evidence of a healthy planet.
The best fossil wood site in the South, advertised as the third largest in the world, is in Flora, Mississippi, off Petrified Forest Road. Here tree trunks continue to erode out of the 36-million-year-old Forest Hill Formation, a sequence of sand and clay deposited in shallow water. Originally, scientists believed these Paleocene-age trees grew in a northern climate before being leveled by a storm, swept into the area by regional river systems, and preserved as an ancient logjam. Today, due to the tropical characteristics, the consensus is of a forest of 100-foot-high trees growing in a moist, warm climate and dying in place after living for a thousand years or more.
This is called the Bi-Centennial Log, over six feet long and weighing 1,800 pounds. It was selected to represent Mississippi at the Bi-Centennial celebration in Philadelphia in 1976.
This pleasant looking man is Bob Dellar who was wonderful to talk to about the Mississippi Petrified Forest, a privately owned and developed park. Prior to 1962 this area was totally unprotected and during this time many tons of petrified logs were hauled away. In 1962 the property was acquired by the Schabilion Family. Preservation began immediately and the Park was opened to the public in 1963. We are grateful to this family and to Bob for insuring that the Petrified Forest exists for all to enjoy.
This petrified log section is unusual as the entire heart was decayed, leaving only an outer shell of woody tissue to be replaced by minerals and changed to stone. The logs are dated by the geological age of the soils in which they were originally buried, the red sands and silts of the Forest Hill Formation.
After being changed into stone, this log was broken into sections either by the stress of long burial, natural movements within the earth, or later as uncovered by erosion.
Mr. Spock enjoying seeing the "Frog", a fossil remnant of a once stately tree lying in the precise spot in which it died 36 million years ago.
Another named fossil is the "Caveman's Bench" which underwent a fair degree of weathering prior to its burial and preservation. We were told that it was all right to sit on it; Spock declined.
There were many segments of logs like this just laying throughout the "Forest".
This is a good example of the red sands in the Forest Hill Formation, the original river deposit in which the logs were buried.
In addition to the Nature Trail that took us through the Petrified Forest, there was a phenomenal Earth Science Museum featuring displays of Petrified Wood, Fossils and Minerals, as well as Gemstones from around the world. This is called a Zebra Rock from Western Australia.
Incredible collection well displayed.
There were many more cases just like this.
Looks like Peter has some work to do to make you a collection of gems and rocks like that one!
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