Petrified Trees Display

The Missississippi River has changed its course numerous times in the past, often burying large stretches of forests along its banks. Occasionally the wood cells in the buried material were replaced by silica from water that leached through the sand and gravel, "petrifying" the wood. These ancient petrified tree trunks once were so common around Piggott that the locals used them as grave markers. Today, examples of this petrified wood can be seen on the courthouse lawn.