Our Featured Specimen
last update: 1/28/2012
WELCOME TO MILLS GEOLOGICAL
specializing in unusual, identified petrified wood
and plant fossils from around the world
We invite you to click on any photo to see a larger, more defined photo of the select specimen. For a more complete listing of our specimens, please download our catalog from from the links below.
Share the Tucson adventure with us as we begin posting some photos from the 2012 gem and mineral shows here ... well, maybe not all 40+ shows!
We will ship your Mills Geological orders when we return on February 21st. Thanks for your patience.
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We appreciate
your patronage,
Jim and Beth
Cherry (Prunus sp.)
Trout Creek Formation, Miocene
McDermitt, Nevada/Oregon
** Simply stunning slab of cherry from the McDermitt diggings -- hard to imagine better definintion of growth rings in a piece from this area. Blue agate fills the aesthetic rot pockets. Nice specimen!
8.5" x 7" on polished face; 1/2" thick slab $119
Conifer (Unusual Locality!)
Tertiary Volcanics
Goldfield, Nevada
** We only rarely see wood from this old mining town any more -- and it never was abundant in quantity. So this piece is unusual for its locality and relative scarcity. Also unusual is the lavender color, a color not often found in petrified wood. A choice piece for the locality collector.
9" x 5.5" on polished face; 5/8" thick slab $69
Yellow Algae-Encased Conifer
Trout Creek Formation, Miocene
McDermitt Nevada/Oregon
** Strikingly different from any other wood in algae we have seen from the McDermitt locality. Others algaes are green, sometimes dark brown, but not generally golden-brown. The golden algae which surrounds this limb appears to be sprinkled into the whitish-pink agate. The contrast between the limb and golden algae-mix give this piece a beautiful presence. The limb itself has a perfect center and good growth rings.
4" x 3" on polished face; 1" thick slab $34
Pine (Pinus sp.)
Trout Creek Formation, Miocene
McDermitt, Nevada/Oregon
** Here's a rather unique slab from a new find at the famous McDermitt collecting locality. This locality has at least a dozen different digging sites - most of which differ in the character and species of woods that can be collected -- everything from opalized to agatized and brown/black to colorful. Now, an intrepid field collector has discovered yet a new spot several miles to the east of the Bretz Mine Airport digging spot and it adds a new dimension to the materials labeled "McDermitt" or occasionally more cryptically, "Malheur County, Oregon" The color and leaching pattern in this log has produced really beautiful slabs - somewhat reminiscent of Tuscarora but not nearly as squished flat as that locality. Fortunately, our friend the intrepid field collector turned the log over to one of the best Oregon cutters and the result is a fine specimen from a newly-discovered site.
10.5" x 5.5" on polished face; 3/8" thick slab $105
Hickory (Carya sp.) Double Heart
Columbia Basalts Group, Miocene
Deschutes, Oregon
** Here is a handsome slice of hickory with two distinct "hearts" -- at the 2:00 and 7:00 positions on the face. The Deschutes Canyon locality, near the confluence of the Deschutes River with the Columbia River, has yielded a wealth of specimens in the past, but good full-round wood from Deschutes Canyon is not that readily available any more and double-heart wood is particularly desirable. This double-heart specimen with rusty-red highlights would be a great addition to a fine collection. Nice medium size for display and/or storage.
7" x 5" on polished face; 7/16" thick slab $89
Walnut (Juglans sp.)
Tertiary
Brogan, Oregon
** Most of the limbs we have seen from Brogan are casts and, while fascinating, they do not have ascertainable structure. This limb section has good walnut structure in the outer perimeter, and the agatized interior has the trace of growth rings. A terrific blend of attributes for the agate and wood collector. And at least two great knots on the exterior.
3" x 2" polished face; 2.5" long limb section $39
"Halite Wood"
Mehama Volcanics, Little Butte Formation
Sweet Home, Linne County, Oregon
** This fascinating wood contains pseudomorphs after halite cubic salt cubes (click photo for closer view). This log spent considerable time immersed in salt water and the salt was deposited in the wood as the wood began to deteriorate. When petrification began, the salt was dissolved away and the resulting cubic cavities began to fill with chalcedony. Some of them were completely filled, some were lined with chalcedony, and some actually grew tiny quartz crystals along the linings of the cubic cavities. A very interesting specimen. The woody fine structure did not survive the immersion in salt water so we are unable to determine a species or family affinity.
3" diameter on polished face; 1/2" thick slab $39
Tempskya
Dakota Sandstone, Cretaceous
Cisco, Utah
** A really excellent example of this Cretaceous tree. The general rule of thumb is that the closer a specimen was to the top of the tree, the more frond traces one sees. The growth habit of this tree (that reached over 40 feet in height) was like that of a palm or fern; the new fronds sprouted from the crown of the tree - the very top of the "false trunk." But much different from a palm or fern, as the older tempskya fronds died out, they rotted away and were replaced by new adventitious roots that helped feed the new fronds up on top. Our specimen is absolutely chock-full of frond traces and the preservation of each one (as well as the preservation of the adventitious roots) is simply unexcelled.
4.5" x 2.5" on polished face; 2" thick $160
SOLD
