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Welcome to Mills Geological |
High-quality, identified petrified wood and plant fossils from around the globe
Our featured specimen
Conifer (Pinales Order)
Late Oligocene to Early Miocene aged silicic ash flow tuffs Slate Range, Churchill County, Nevada ** Totally new find! This log comes from ash flow tuffs determined by the Nevada Bureau of Mines and Geology to fall in the range of 34 to 17 million years old. So, it has been waiting for us quite a while -- and we are rewarded with a beautiful pattern and excellent slab. Northern Nevada was very volcanically active during the entire Cenozoic so the geologists have gone to considerable effort to map and date all of the intrusive and extrusive igneous lithography throughout the state. When we cut this log, we were very pleased with the pattern and the separate color hues that have resulted from differential leaching of the interior. It's a fine display slice and just the right size for the advanced collector of localities. (Please note that we also have an end cut off of this log if you prefer end cuts to slabs.) 7” x 5.5” on polished face; 5/8" thick slab $59 |
Pepper tree (Schinoxylon actinoporosum)
Laney Shale Member, Green River Formation, Eocene Blue Forest, Wyoming ** Simply put - an amazing specimen. Excellent wood anatomy preservation. Boring beetle tunnels with frass. Blue agate plus lighter-hued and white fortification agate -- plus tube agate formations. Well developed quartz crystals in the cavity. Excellent periphery of Collonia algae. And, we note that the piece sits perfectly on its natural side as a display option for your next display case of wood -- or right on your table for all to admire. This piece is extraordinary, even for Blue Forest! 4.25” x 3" on polished face; 4” tall end cut specimen $75 |
Juniper (Juniperus sp.)
Tropico Group, Miocene Boron Dry Lake near Mojave, California ** The color and pattern of this classic Boron wood are simply superb. It comes out of an old collection of Leonard Tunnell who dug the Boron site in the 1950s with a backhoe. The proximity of Boron Dry Lake to Los Angeles -- and the top quality of the agate here -- caused this area to be totally depleted by the early 1970s. Much of the material went for costume jewelry, not collector specimens, and the colors and agate quality of this piece is a prime of example of why. For the agate collector in you, this is one you will want to have for its beauty, its locality, and its agatized charm. For the wood collector in you, conifers did not occur in profusion at Boron so this genus is rather scarce. We are seeing less and less Boron wood on the market, so don’t let this one pass you by. 5" x 4" on polished face; 1/2" thick slab $49 |
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Sycamore (Platanus sp.)
Little Butte Formation, Mehama Volcanics unit, Oligocene
McQueen Ranch, Sweet Home area, Linn County, Oregon
** Just look at this nice Sycamore specimen recovered from the logging project at the McQueen Ranch. This log seems to be more highly agatized that many of the other ones we have seen. It would have been in a more favorable spot when the silica-bearing groundwater began percolating through the area and thus got a lion's share of the silica early. Please see our photomicrograph that shows the amazing preservation of the wood anatomy. One of the best preservations we have seen. And, the contrasting colors of the slab make a great pattern as well!
The McQueen Ranch has not produced petrified wood for quite a long time, but a recent logging operation and the attendant soil disruption has produced some really nice specimens -- and we think we got some of the best! If you have been following our website during the past year you have already seen what interesting and beautiful specimens that the logging operation uncovered. The lapidary that obtained nearly all of the logs and limbs continues to produce really neat pieces like this one, which is different! The McQueen Ranch is directly across the road from the famed Holleywood Ranch which has consistently produced enormous amounts of petrified wood, but the two neighboring sites could not be more different in mineralization. As a matter of fact, the mineralization diversity at the McQueen site is simply remarkable.
5.5" x 4.5" on polished face; 7/16" thick slab $55
Little Butte Formation, Mehama Volcanics unit, Oligocene
McQueen Ranch, Sweet Home area, Linn County, Oregon
** Just look at this nice Sycamore specimen recovered from the logging project at the McQueen Ranch. This log seems to be more highly agatized that many of the other ones we have seen. It would have been in a more favorable spot when the silica-bearing groundwater began percolating through the area and thus got a lion's share of the silica early. Please see our photomicrograph that shows the amazing preservation of the wood anatomy. One of the best preservations we have seen. And, the contrasting colors of the slab make a great pattern as well!
The McQueen Ranch has not produced petrified wood for quite a long time, but a recent logging operation and the attendant soil disruption has produced some really nice specimens -- and we think we got some of the best! If you have been following our website during the past year you have already seen what interesting and beautiful specimens that the logging operation uncovered. The lapidary that obtained nearly all of the logs and limbs continues to produce really neat pieces like this one, which is different! The McQueen Ranch is directly across the road from the famed Holleywood Ranch which has consistently produced enormous amounts of petrified wood, but the two neighboring sites could not be more different in mineralization. As a matter of fact, the mineralization diversity at the McQueen site is simply remarkable.
5.5" x 4.5" on polished face; 7/16" thick slab $55
Ash (Fraxinus sp.)
Tertiary Chimney Creek, Nevada ** This very attractive root section has exceptionally well-defined growth rings (a real "bull's eye") and outstanding woody fine structure. Ash, of course, is one of the very straight grained commercial timbers that made it so useful for garden tool handles (shovels, picks, rakes, etc) before fiberglass and plastic took over the major part of the market. Most of the material recovered at Chimney Creek Reservoir is root, not stem, and this section is no exception. There is plenty of gnarly exterior surface, along with traces of the rootlets that once emanated from this main root. Great little piece! 1.5” x 1” on the polished face, Root section 3” long $26 |
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Sycamore "crotch wood" (Platanus sp.)
Tertiary Private Ranch near Madras, Jefferson County, Oregon ** At the Madras Show in June, we ran into a couple of folks who are local Jefferson County residents and have been able to convince neighboring ranchers to let them collect on their ranch properties. This end cut is one of the fruits of that relationship - a really interesting sycamore crotch wood with two hearts and anastomosing structure in between them. While we are hopeful that these relationships will continue for several years and enhance the petrified wood inventories of dealer stocks, our experience indicates that the opposite is likely. Ranches sell and new owners close off lands to collectors. Diggers leave holes and foreclose any chance of future digging. And, those are only two of the reasons that opportunities dry up. So, our motto is to take advantage when the opportunity exists rather than waiting for more of it later on. Perhaps this is a good strategy for all serious collectors. Anastomosing structure is the result of a branch forking into two branches and competing for space to grow and expand. As the two branches get larger they literally come into contact with each other and form a crotch as cells of the two literally try to push each other out of the way. The result? Completely mixed-up rays, vessels, and background structure. It is this intermingling that makes crotch wood so strong and difficult to work with woodworking tools. Also the reason that a crotch is so hard to split into firewood! 6" x 2" on polished face, end cut up to 3.75" thick $55 |
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Dicot Angiosperm wrapped in lahar (Incertae sedis)
Mehama Volcanics Unit, Little Butte Formation, Oligocene
McQueen Ranch, Sweet Home area, Linn County, Oregon
** Another charmer from the McQueen Ranch, which was across the road from the former Marker Ranch (now called Holleywood Ranch) that produced some of the best preserved wood in the Linn County Petrified Forest. This stick of angiosperm wood was rolled into a thick blanket of volcanic lahar. Lahar is a word originally derived from the Indonesian language in Java and it means a flowing, usually violent, mass of material ejected from a volcanic vent which combines with water and whatever soil and vegetation is in the area to create a hot mudflow concentrating in rivers or smaller stream channels. If they have sufficient gradient, they can be exceptionally destructive. Imagine a hot, viscous mudflow with the consistency of wet concrete and you can get an image of what a lahar would look like. The difference between a lahar and a flow consisting of only pyroclastic material shows up on this specimen. The lahar picks up anything in its way - either destroying it or taking it along for the ride. In our specimen, the stick of wood is being taken for a ride while the flow picks up small pebbles and bits of soil on its journey. Notice in the photo that you can see just how angular all of those pebbles and bits are. These small bits are definitely not river-tumbled with smooth surfaces. This angularity is often some of the best evidence of a lahar flow. The viscosity of the volcanic material in this particular flow made it possible to actually roll the stick into a larger cylinder before the entire mass cooled and was covered over by additional ash and mud. It is not possible to determine the source of water that made the flowing mixture possible. It could have been a heavy rainfall during the eruption, it could have been an existing stream, or it could have been a mass of snow which was immediately melted by the hot pyroclastic material. It is worth noting that while the wood survived quite well, the bark was severely crunched, and while it was held perfectly in place surrounding the wood, it ended up fractured and brecciated. We are providing a photomicrograph of the bark as well as a small portion of the lahar showing typical angularity of the soil and gravel it picked up.
5" x 4.5" on the polished face; 7/16" thick slab $47
Mehama Volcanics Unit, Little Butte Formation, Oligocene
McQueen Ranch, Sweet Home area, Linn County, Oregon
** Another charmer from the McQueen Ranch, which was across the road from the former Marker Ranch (now called Holleywood Ranch) that produced some of the best preserved wood in the Linn County Petrified Forest. This stick of angiosperm wood was rolled into a thick blanket of volcanic lahar. Lahar is a word originally derived from the Indonesian language in Java and it means a flowing, usually violent, mass of material ejected from a volcanic vent which combines with water and whatever soil and vegetation is in the area to create a hot mudflow concentrating in rivers or smaller stream channels. If they have sufficient gradient, they can be exceptionally destructive. Imagine a hot, viscous mudflow with the consistency of wet concrete and you can get an image of what a lahar would look like. The difference between a lahar and a flow consisting of only pyroclastic material shows up on this specimen. The lahar picks up anything in its way - either destroying it or taking it along for the ride. In our specimen, the stick of wood is being taken for a ride while the flow picks up small pebbles and bits of soil on its journey. Notice in the photo that you can see just how angular all of those pebbles and bits are. These small bits are definitely not river-tumbled with smooth surfaces. This angularity is often some of the best evidence of a lahar flow. The viscosity of the volcanic material in this particular flow made it possible to actually roll the stick into a larger cylinder before the entire mass cooled and was covered over by additional ash and mud. It is not possible to determine the source of water that made the flowing mixture possible. It could have been a heavy rainfall during the eruption, it could have been an existing stream, or it could have been a mass of snow which was immediately melted by the hot pyroclastic material. It is worth noting that while the wood survived quite well, the bark was severely crunched, and while it was held perfectly in place surrounding the wood, it ended up fractured and brecciated. We are providing a photomicrograph of the bark as well as a small portion of the lahar showing typical angularity of the soil and gravel it picked up.
5" x 4.5" on the polished face; 7/16" thick slab $47
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Joshua Tree (Protoyucca shadishii)
Virgin Valley Formation, Miocene
Badger Flat, Humboldt County, Nevada
** Good size (6.5" x 4.5") and good thickness (1/2") on this rare wood -- and you know that we don't "throw around" the designation of rare. Joshua Tree is one of the most scarce species of petrified wood that one can collect (others include Ginkgo, Mennegoxylon, and Trochodendron). Joshua Tree is a monocot - it sends up only one cotyledon from the seed rather than two - and silicified petrifications of monocots are very rare in the fossil record (palm is the single exception to this). A lot of the Joshua Tree suffered from heart rot (typical for monocots) and the centers were all gone before petrification started. Since it is a monocot, it does not have annual growth rings. Instead, it has an inner primary cylinder and an outer secondary cylinder. The specimen we offer here is entirely secondary cylinder. Most of the fossil Joshua Tree is mineralized in colors of gray and white. This specimen is a bit different in that it has a richer rusty red color palette. Charming, rare piece at a very affordable price point. Our photomicrograph shows the unique arrangement of vascular structures!
6.5" x 4.5" on polished face; 1/2" thick slab $135
Virgin Valley Formation, Miocene
Badger Flat, Humboldt County, Nevada
** Good size (6.5" x 4.5") and good thickness (1/2") on this rare wood -- and you know that we don't "throw around" the designation of rare. Joshua Tree is one of the most scarce species of petrified wood that one can collect (others include Ginkgo, Mennegoxylon, and Trochodendron). Joshua Tree is a monocot - it sends up only one cotyledon from the seed rather than two - and silicified petrifications of monocots are very rare in the fossil record (palm is the single exception to this). A lot of the Joshua Tree suffered from heart rot (typical for monocots) and the centers were all gone before petrification started. Since it is a monocot, it does not have annual growth rings. Instead, it has an inner primary cylinder and an outer secondary cylinder. The specimen we offer here is entirely secondary cylinder. Most of the fossil Joshua Tree is mineralized in colors of gray and white. This specimen is a bit different in that it has a richer rusty red color palette. Charming, rare piece at a very affordable price point. Our photomicrograph shows the unique arrangement of vascular structures!
6.5" x 4.5" on polished face; 1/2" thick slab $135
Douglas Fir (Pseudotsuga sp.)
Trout Creek Formation Miocene Private Ranch near McDermitt, Oregon/Nevada border ** 2017 was a good year for one of our favorite digger/cutter dealers. He undertook a dig on the Zimmerman Ranch (with a member of the Zimmerman family!) that was a bit of a distance from the traditional Zimmerman Ranch digging site that has produced all of that beautiful easily-recognizable wood with the reddish-hued rind. This new dig (and it was undertaken with a backhoe so it was rather deep) produced a wide variety of fossil woods with really good preservation. The ancestral Douglas Fir genus, Pseudotsuga, is characterized by resin canals that are somewhat sparse, but when they do occur there are sometimes have two immediately next to each other. Please see our photomicrograph showing this feature. Worth noting: the paper by H.D. MacGinitie entitled “The Trout Creek Flora of Southeastern Oregon” published in 1933 includes the genus Pseudotsuga among the fossil leaves collected in the same Trout Creek Formation that has produced the wood. 2.25” x 1.75" on polished face; 2.5" limb section $32 |
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