A Real Mystery!!!!!!

I have quite an intriguing mystery. This post is completely honest and serious, not a joke. There has been an interesting rock in my back yard path for some time. I knew it was some form of petrified wood from what I could see exposed and have been meaning to dig it the rest of the way out and check it out for some time, well I finally got around to it yesterday. It is rock, it is cool to the touch and feels like rock and is hard and heavy like rock. By it's shape we wer...e thinking it is petrified branch or root or bone or maybe even poop. Upon cleaning it up (washing the dirt off) we noticed the metallic looking areas w/ vigorous scratching it can be flaked off, but not easily. Does anyone have a clue????? Do not post ideas until you have looked at ALL THE PICTURES, seriously there is an even bigger mystery in the pics. Feel free to share this post especially if you have some rock hound friends, we are fascinated and would like to know a real answer.


This side was the most exposed has less metallic but the lighter areas are really metallic

This side really made us think bone

This was the most buried and has the most metallic


One end, no real tree rings are obvious


The other end, no rings here either, but definitely a bone look except .............................................

Look closely, do you see it


There are letters in the rock!!!!!!!!

This is just to show size.

Hey Kassaundra

Wow .. definitely intriguing and I am subscribing because I would also love to hear thoughts.

I do not know what it is but I would like to share some thoughts about certain aspects which may help you or someone else come up with an answer.

From what I understand petrified wood can take a very, very long time to occur and the lettering may rule out that option.

Is it possible that on the end with the lettering, that is resin?

Could the metallic areas be remnants of a metallic paint or just paint?

I am leaning towards something manufactured and at first glance, looked like a fish tank ornament or similar.

I have a garden ornament which is a frog hanging onto a cut off tree stump and this reminds me of that also.

Could it be some sort of manufactured garden ornament made to look like wood which has degraded?

Edited to Add: The letters also look raised not embossed which gives me the impression it could have been in some sort of injection mould.

Teila said:

Hey Kassaundra

Wow .. definitely intriguing and I am subscribing because I would also love to hear thoughts.

I do not know what it is but I would like to share some thoughts about certain aspects which may help you or someone else come up with an answer.

From what I understand petrified wood can take a very, very long time to occur and the lettering may rule out that option.

Is it possible that on the end with the lettering, that is resin?

Could the metallic areas be remnants of a metallic paint or just paint?

I am leaning towards something manufactured and at first glance, looked like a fish tank ornament or similar.

I have a garden ornament which is a frog hanging onto a cut off tree stump and this reminds me of that also.

Could it be some sort of manufactured garden ornament made to look like wood which has degraded?

Edited to Add: The letters also look raised not embossed which gives me the impression it could have been in some sort of injection mould.

Click to expand...

Those seem like viable ideas. We have lived here for 20+ years, and we built on this site. Before that it was a pasture. Yes the lettering seems raised and means it is definitely man made and not what it seems.

Still looking .. like a dog with a bone

the C T U R E could be Fracture or, maybe Do Not Puncture

I would take it to a local university geology/paleontology department. Maybe a fossilized bone or a coprolite. Really interesting for sure!

Teila said:

Still looking .. like a dog with a bone

the C T U R E could be Fracture or, maybe Do Not Puncture

Click to expand...

or tincture????


I posted this on several sites the best guess I have got so far, that seems to most logical is a "log" from a fake fireplace. There were a couple of dilapidated outbuildings on the site when we bought it, someone could have had a gas or propane heater in one of them while they were working.

LOL, I just saw the pic with the letters. Hahaha! Nevermind...

Kassaundra said:

or tincture????


I posted this on several sites the best guess I have got so far, that seems to most logical is a "log" from a fake fireplace. There were a couple of dilapidated outbuildings on the site when we bought it, someone could have had a gas or propane heater in one of them while they were working.

Click to expand...

Yeah, a fake fireplace log is definitely plausible! I was starting to thing that maybe something 'heat damaged' which was why I was thinking Do Not Puncture. Even if not a fake log, maybe something that got thrown on an open fire.