The Columbia herald. [volume] (Columbia, Tenn.) 1850-1873, 1872-11-01
ANOTHER WESTERN WONDER.
A Fossil Palm Tree I'm ColOrado-HOv
Old IL the World.


Old IL the World.
The following Is from the Denver
City Ne,1s: .at s7h @
Twenty-one miles south of Denver
lie the remains of a palm tree preserved
in stone. 1t Is on the hillside, looking
down on Cherry Creek, and hundred
feet or more above the level of the val
ley of that stream. The soil is similar
to that of most oil the upland plains in
Colorado, and covered at present with
q thick crop Of grass and weeds.
Bunches of current bushes, laden with
fruit, cluster about the wooden rocks,
and above, to the top of the ridge and
along its crest, are scrubby young
pines and a few large trees. At the
foot of the hill, three hundred yards to
the westward, passes the old stage road
from Denver to Santa Fe. The travel
er, looking up, could see a ledge or
mass of rough looking rocks, rising ten
or twelve feet above the surface of the
ground and about forty feet In length.
Camp fires have been built against 1t
and campers have doubtless sought
shelter from the storm or sun under its
projecting front, little dreaming that
they reclined in the shadow of palm
tree. The pupils of schOOl-house
near by have played about it many a
day. Last winter hunter for curious
specimens stumbled upon it and guess
ed itA true character. Specimens were
brought to Denver and pronounced by
the best authorities petrified palm
wood. But the mass was reported so
large that the story seemed incredible.
A careful examination reveals the
following facts: The monster tree
evidently grew where it lies, and there
has been very little change in the sur
face of the ground at that point since
its fall. Its fall was towards the north
and across a narrow tongue or spur of
the hill, near the crest, on the south
side of which it stood. The uneven
ness of the ground caused the part Of
trunk now visible to break in two
pieces. The first, or butt section, is
thirty-nine feet long, and it has appar-
emily rolled about Lalf over, down the
hill. In the heart was either hollow
or mass of decsyed wood, from four
to six feet i'm diameter. The upper
side of the log has been broken up by
the action of the elements and frost,
destroying between One-third and one
half in circumference, and the frag-
ments lie scattered about in huge
blocks. The more than half that re-
mains intact is a huge trough; the
surface of the earth is even with its
brim on the uphill side and ten feet
ten below it on the down-hill side. As
before stated, this section is thirty-niEe
feet long. AS near as can be deter.
mined without excavating the adjacent
earth, the diameter of the tree at its
base is twenty-five feet. Midway of
its length, or twenty feet from the
base, it is fifteen feet.
The second section is twenty-one
feet long, and evidently lies where it
fell. Striking square across the ridge,
the immense weight almost buried 1t
in the earth. Its outlines are hard to
determine without digging, but at
mId-length, or fifty feet from the
stump, it is certainly nine feet in
diameter. The two sections, as de-
scribed, measure just sixty feet In
length. Above that point the body OF
the tree fell into a gulch, which has
been since nearly filled up by the wash
from the hills above Digging would
doubtless reveal much more of the
trunk. - .-'
And all this immense mass of wood
has turned to stone, hard and fiinty as
porphyry. Some of it looks like agate,
finely veined and delicately tinted.
Other with Opaline lustre; some as
white as the driven snow, or with the
pOlished surface of chalcedony. Por-
tions of the trunk must have been
rotton, for its stony remains are honey
combed. and the cavities filled with
delicate crystals that sparkle in the
sunlight like real diamonds. Breaking
into the knots with heavy blows of the
sledge hammer reveals miniature
caves and grottoes glittering with
stalactites and stalagmites of real cry
stal. Specimens of the bark can be
Clipped off, looking as natural, doubt
less, as when its own green leaves
waved i'm the breeze and Darwin's in
choate man gambOled among their
giant stems.
1t is useless to speculate upon thS
time when that giant of the fores'
fiourished; of The hundreds of thou.
sands of years during which torrid
sun daily kissed its shining leaves; OF
its fall and immersion in the silicious
bath that changed its very fibre to
flint. 1t is history in stone, telling ol
changes of the condition and climate
of this part of the world that may well
make one shiver if he expects to STOP
here fifty or hundred thousand years
longer. Meanwhile it can supply ma
terial for the walls of courthouse
window -sills, and caps for all of Den.
yer, or centre-table tops for the West.
ern States. 1t is the very biggest
thing-in stone-and among trees II
takes the palm. Call at the Ne,o'
office, or at Rev. Hamilton's and SEE
specimens.
A Mechanic.