Examples of metasequoia trees similar to the petrified specimen found by a Wyoming couple recently on their property. (Photo by Erik Herman, Harvard.edu)
Cowboy State Daily has a story about the discovery of some gigantic petrified trees near Buffalo, Wyoming. The fossil tree trunks were found while building an RV park. The fossils date to the Paleocene about 60 million years ago. One section measures about 35 feet long and more the a foot wide. The trees are believed to be metasequoias, as other fossils of the same trees have been found nearby.
Jeanne Peterson and her husband, Robert Suchor, weren’t expecting any tree problems when they started building an RV park outside Buffalo, Wyoming. There were no trees on the property — or so they thought.
Turns out there were some huge trees, they just weren’t growing up from the ground. The couple instead found a 60 million-year-old petrified forest of some of the most giant trees that ever lived in Wyoming.
When they started building their home, Peterson and her husband found pieces of petrified wood and roots on the property, but nothing large enough to cause concern. But as they dug further, they found a forest.
“We started to find trees sticking out of the side of the hill,” she told Cowboy State Daily. “Multiple trees. There’s petrified wood everywhere around us.”
