Cronaca: Petrified wood exhibit

January 17, 2003

Petrified wood exhibit

The obsession started with the garage-sale purchase of a rock saw capable of cutting a stone the size of a golf ball. That led Dennis and Mary Murphy to rockhounding, which then lead the Tigard couple to petrified-wood hounding, all of it for fun.

But fun turned to fanaticism during the past quarter-century, something the Murphys whole-heartedly admit. Because the pair -- who spend most vacations scouring for logs -- have accumulated tons of petrified wood.

Now much of the massive collection, which for years has been stored in boxes, has emerged as what may be the largest museum exhibit of petrified wood in the world.

Saturday a grand opening celebration is planned from 1 to 5 p.m. at the Rice Northwest Museum of Rocks and Minerals in Hillsboro. . . .

Posted by David on January 17, 2003 10:29 AM

Comments

I have a wonderful piece of petrified wood about 5 feet tall and about 30 inches in diameter at the bottom. It shows the grain and knots of the tree is wonderful detail. I estimate it to be about 3500 pounds. Can you give me an estimate of its worth? One collector in my country store earlier this week said that as an exhibition piece, it would be worth about $20,000.00. Could he possible be correct? Thank you. Steve

Posted by: Steve on October 17, 2003 5:25 PM

We are a family in Bali - Indonesia with a stock of 80 tons of petrified wood and 40 tons of agatized fossil coral - any sizes for sale .
For price / quantity please email me .

Posted by: Poer GWK on May 9, 2004 1:14 AM

I would like to know what the prices are for
petrified wood, and what is it that determines
the prices. I found a man who wants to buy some of my "pieces" and I don't want to get ripped
off, i worked hard for the pieces i have. Can you
help me? Thanx

Posted by: Holly on June 18, 2004 4:54 AM

Do you know of any locations to get beautiful boulders and rocks for landscaping my yard? Like white or rose quartz, mica, pyrite, etc. Thanks. Don

Posted by: Don Rawson on February 24, 2005 11:12 PM

I just purchased a petrified wood stump from Indonesia. Does anyone know of any localities from Indonesia that this could come from? Do you know the name of the tree? It is 15" tall & 19" wide. A beautiful speciman. Any information anyone has on the name and locality.

Posted by: bari miller on October 29, 2005 11:12 AM

I am interested in selling petrified wood stumps in my showroom and I was told that Indonesia has black and white petrified wood stumps that are polished all around. I was hoping someone knew of any companies that manufacture these and if they can supply me with their information. I thank everyone in advance for your time.

Posted by: Elizabeth on November 22, 2005 12:54 PM

There is actually quite a lot of sources of Indonesian petrified wood. However, most comes from west Java, just south of the capital city of Jakarta. It is excavated from a volcanic ash sequence known as the Genteng Formation which is Pliocene in age, which is about 2-3 million years old.

A variety of species can be collected. They are essentially the same type as found in modern day tropical rainforests in the region, so they include Dypterocarps and palms. If you are very lucky you may come across a peice of vine and some beautiful bamboo.

You will find it difficult to establish a precise locality from which your sample was recovered. This is because the guys who dig up the material tend to keep the location of their excavation sites secret to protect their income. I doubt very much if any retailers will know the true answer.

I lived out there for 4 years so I proabably know as much as anyone on this subject. Feel free to contact me if you have any more questions about petrified wood from Indonesia.

Posted by: Andy on January 24, 2006 8:55 PM

I am interested to to find out how to authenticate the petrified wood . Is there any body that does it ??

A friend of mine has a white piece of petrified wood approx 6 inches in Diameter and 2 feet high and wants to sell it .Anyone interested ??

CHRIS

Posted by: chrisraj on March 17, 2006 3:46 AM