Petrified wood from Delaware

Petrified wood from Delaware

March, 2011

The petrified wood site in Odessa, Delaware is an old corn field destined to become the home for a new a school. If the recently moved earth and surveyors markers are any indication I suspect this site will be gone to collecting in the very near future. Little research has been done regarding the wood found in and around Odessa, it's believed that the petrified cypress wood was re-deposited during the Pleistocene (10,000 years to 2 million years ago) from older deposits (Miocene?). Most of the pieces are small and can be collected simply by surface collecting, but in a day’s collecting the chances are good you will walk away with at least a few pieces worth displaying.

The collecting field.
Recently move earth and markers indicate that the start of
construction can't be far behind.

Typical sized pieces, anything smaller I didn't bother with.

Some larger and interesting pieces did turn up.
For the record, I did cut a few smaller pieces on a wet saw and tried
polishing them, but it was a tremendous amount of work for what turned out
to but a rather so so result. With the proper equipment and knowledge I would
imagine some of these pieces might polish up nicely.

Some photos taken near the end of the day, that's me on the right.

This is just a sample of what I collected.

I'm in the process of building a lighted display case, once this is
completed it will free up some much needed space. My plans are to build a deep
glass topped case and just fill it with petrified wood.