Frozen in time, today that wood is beautiful. And so, as Parker explains, rangers occasionally see visitors trying to smuggle a piece home as a souvenir.

Visitors — the story went — were swiping a ton of petrified wood a month, 12 tons a year. Before long, according to the stories, the park would be barren. Maybe it already was in places.

Explore America's ancient history by walking through trees that are millions of years old, preserved throughout time in a ...

During the 1920s, petrified wood was so common in the area that it sold for as little as $5 a truckload, explained Mary G. Saltarelli of Granbury, who is writing a master’s thesis on Glen Rose ...

The park estimates it loses about 12 tons of petrified wood a year to theft. Somewhere along the line, the myth developed that pilfered rocks will bring bad luck to the pilferers.

What is special about Petrified Forest National Park? Petrified Forest calls itself a Triassic park. It preserves more than 200 million years of history, including its namesake petrified wood.

Because petrified wood is so often found in the West, it's quite surprising to many people that the Eastern U.S. is home to just two petrified forests in New York and Mississippi, making the ...

How many petrified trees are yet to be uncovered? If you're just itching to touch some petrified wood, the "Caveman's Bench" provides the opportunity for guests to sit right on the wood. It's shaped ...

YAKIMA – A forest of petrified trees has been unearthed in Central Washington, still standing where it was engulfed in lava and preserved more than 15 million years ago. About 200 hickory, elm ...