Is It Petrified Wood?

Since moving to Colorado I've been collecting chunks of rocks that look like petrified wood.
The first I actually found in my backyard while we were digging around a sprinkler head - it is 6 inches long. In the past week or so I've found a couple more smaller pieces while trail hiking with the dog. They are 2-4 inches long.

Today while out with puppers I found a 9 pound chunk and brought it home Before I go crazy collecting more of this stuff, can anyone here help me verify that my nifty rock collection is really petrified wood? Does it have any value?

Here's today's haul ...





And here's the smaller pieces I found previously ... one of the small pieces has a neat area that looks like fossilized crystalized crackled sap.




Thanks for the help!

a reply to: eeyipes

You're last pic, definitely, the others could be partial geodes or agate. The crystalline structures are leached minerals replacing organic matter over time.

I would actually keep this quiet, you have a gold mine under foot. The wider spread that information the more rock hounds with shovels will appear from nowhere.

Added:

im age search

a reply to: intrptr

Thanks! I've added a couple more pics. My location is secret! What kills me is last year I think I found a sizeable piece off the beaten trail but there was only a small portion of it above ground. Later I snuck a garden trowel out to see if I could try and dig it up but the ground was rocky and cement hard and I broke the shovel. I left it thinking I'd try again in the Spring when the ground might be softer. But now the area has been bulldozed for homes so either some construction guy found it, or it's going to be buried 20 feet under someone's house.

a reply to: eeyipes

Yah, beautiful. When sectioned in thin slices and polished, this stuff is highly prized by jewelers as gem quality material. Not all of it, but the pieces with multi color cores and clear crystals, quite a find.

You can have it appraised, but thats what sends out the alarm for finds. Collect all you can for a while then take it to a big rock hound gem show. They have them yearly somewhere.

You can reserve a table, walk the exhibits and see what others are charging for similar material, first.

You'll get rich, maybe.

a reply to: eeyipes

I have a feeling everything you posted is pertified wood - bring it to a rock shop and they could tell you for sure beauties!

yeah the smaller pieces are most likely petrified wood. The big chunk looks like it's probly some kind of flint, and with that coloring it's a great find too.

It all appears to be petrified wood. I think a few of the other posters may be getting your hopes up a bit. While cabochons, pendants, and other sorts of jewelry can be made from petrified wood, unless you make and sell the jewelry yourself, it's not going to get you rich. Ever. I have found tons and tons of petrified wood. I usually leave it in place unless it has killer color or some unique quality such as external druzy quartz.

I say make yourself a backyard rock garden and enjoy your finds. I hope you find a new passion in rockhounding.

a reply to: IDontLikeSalt

Sounds like a plan, thanks!

a reply to: eeyipes

As someone with more fossils than he knows what to do with. Yes, it's either petrified wood or coral. The smaller pieces would be wood, but the bigger look like coral cross-sections we have up here in MI.

The guesses about it being agate aren't too far off either - I have some rather beautiful specimens of agatized petrified wood where the wood grain was replaced by crystals.

Beautiful!

-fossilera

originally posted by: eeyipes
Since moving to Colorado I've been collecting chunks of rocks that look like petrified wood.
The first I actually found in my backyard while we were digging around a sprinkler head - it is 6 inches long. In the past week or so I've found a couple more smaller pieces while trail hiking with the dog. They are 2-4 inches long.

Today while out with puppers I found a 9 pound chunk and brought it home

Before I go crazy collecting more of this stuff, can anyone here help me verify that my nifty rock collection is really petrified wood? Does it have any value?

Here's today's haul ...

And here's the smaller pieces I found previously ... one of the small pieces has a neat area that looks like fossilized crystalized crackled sap.

Thanks for the help!

Some of those are IMHO petrified flesh...meat...bone....bits and pieces....I also find them.....wait till you find machined artificial marble pieces mixed in with these pieces then you will begin asking real questions .....lol...my current spot is an Ancient riverbed now a couple hundred feet under the ground in most places.