Cherokee Ranch petrified forest

A large petrified forest thought to date to the Paleocene at around 55 million years old is located on and around the grounds of Cherokee Ranch in Douglas County, Colorado.

[1] Later, the 1920s-built castle on modern-day Cherokee Ranch would incorporate over 4,000 pieces of petrified wood into its construction, alongside locally sourced rhyolite.

[7] The large logs and other pieces in the Cherokee Ranch forest originated as river-driven driftwood, indicated by their location in a matrix of arkosic sandstone and the lack of both limbs and bark.

Growth rings are relatively uncommon in Cherokee Ranch samples, indicating that water stress and seasonality did not generally influence the forest.

[7] Cellar structure analysis suggests some logs are the fossils of a now-extinct species likely related to the modern laurel tree family.