Tomas Alex Tizon (thanks, rlake): Clyde Friend’s life changed the moment his bulldozer hit the first tree on a hot summer afternoon in 2002 as he leveled a hill behind his workshop. Chips flew everywhere, a small explosion of brown and white shards. He hopped off the dozer to investigate. There, embedded in the hill, was a mostly intact fossilized tree trunk standing upright in solid rock. “Well, that’s different,” he recalls thinking. A heavy-machine operator for most of his working life, Friend was used to finding bits of petrified wood now and then. He’d never bumped into anything like this. For the next several days, in the privacy of his remote 10-acre lot, Friend dug up the rest of his find by chipping away the surrounding rock. It turned out to be a petrified hickory tree, 18 feet tall and as big around as a cantaloupe.
He hopped off the dozer to investigate. There, embedded in the hill, was a mostly intact fossilized tree trunk standing upright in solid rock. “Well, that’s different,” he recalls thinking.
A heavy-machine operator for most of his working life, Friend was used to finding bits of petrified wood now and then. He’d never bumped into anything like this.
For the next several days, in the privacy of his remote 10-acre lot, Friend dug up the rest of his find by chipping away the surrounding rock. It turned out to be a petrified hickory tree, 18 feet tall and as big around as a cantaloupe.
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