Petrified wood is one of the most sought-after materials in the world for both its aesthetic value and its scientific value. But in Indonesia, miners who risk their lives to dig it up barely make enough to get by.
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00:00 This man is risking his life to hunt for tree fossils that are 20 million years old,
00:08 from a time long before the first humans appeared.
00:12 Pieces of petrified wood could unlock mysteries from our past.
00:20 But every year, thousands of fossils are turned into furniture, plates, and even ashtrays.
00:39 Items can sell abroad for up to four times what Indonesian miners make in an entire year.
00:48 So what kinds of secrets can we learn from these ancient treasures?
00:56 And why is it so dangerous to dig them up?
01:00 It takes a perfect combination of rare events for wood to transform this way.
01:11 First, you need a lack of oxygen to stop decomposition.
01:17 That can happen when a tree falls into a river or is buried under wet soil.
01:22 The water swells up the wood, opening its cavities.
01:26 Then you need a volcanic eruption so silica from the ash can seep in and fill the spaces.
01:34 It will start forming crystals, copying the exact texture of the tree, molecule by molecule.
01:42 Over time, the entire trunk crystallizes into different kinds of solid quartz.
01:48 It's one of the hardest materials on earth.
01:53 Miners can feel it underground with an iron rod.
02:12 Eli Suheili dug these mines himself with the help of his co-workers.
02:17 He's 68 years old, but still goes in barefoot, bringing only a hammer and a crowbar.
02:29 This mine is about 10 feet deep.
02:38 It isn't reinforced or secured in any way, and there are no ventilation shafts.
02:44 Eli finds a few fossils within minutes of digging.
03:06 [Squeaking]
03:16 He scrapes at the walls to see if there's any wood hidden there.
03:20 [Squeaking]
03:38 In 2016, 12 men died when a mine collapsed nearby.
03:48 Eli has never lost a friend, but he has been injured before.
03:52 Digging here technically requires a permit,
04:11 but officials will only issue them if miners have the right kind of equipment.
04:16 Eli says most can't afford it, so they risk working illegally.
04:43 Today, this is the biggest log they found.
04:46 It's about three times heavier than a piece of wood of the same size.
04:51 [Squeaking]
05:01 [Squeaking]
05:27 [Speaking in foreign language]
05:42 They've even dug up pieces weighing up to four tons.
05:46 That's about the weight of a medium-sized truck.
05:49 They could get $480 for a log that big.
05:54 But they divide the money, and they have to pay the landowner, too.
05:58 In the end, they're each left with about $60 for a month's work.
06:07 That's about half the minimum wage in this part of Indonesia.
06:11 Ultimately, the wood is marked up and sells for a lot more than what miners initially get for it.
06:20 But Eli says mining is more stable than other jobs,
06:24 because there's so much petrified wood here.
06:27 Wood polishers then transfer these slabs to a workshop.
06:48 [Sawing]
06:59 37-year-old Sukeli has been polishing pieces for almost a decade,
07:05 turning them into plates, stools, and tables.
07:09 [Speaking in foreign language]
07:16 [Sawing]
07:22 Like most gems, petrified wood can only be cut with a diamond-tipped blade.
07:28 [Speaking in foreign language]
07:47 [Sawing]
07:53 [Music]
08:01 The fossils in this part of Indonesia come from a kind of tree called sempur.
08:06 They were alive 20 million years ago, when the earth was warmer.
08:15 As the wood hardened into rock, it turned beige, white, or this black color.
08:24 [Speaking in foreign language]
08:34 [Sawing]
08:36 It can take up to three weeks to make the bigger items, like this table.
08:40 [Sawing]
08:45 He can finish smaller ones, like plates, in two days.
08:49 [Speaking in foreign language]
08:56 He works with Kirono, a middleman who places custom orders on behalf of international clients,
09:02 who pay twice as much as local shops.
09:05 But there's no fixed price.
09:07 Each piece is valued depending on the color and patterns.
09:14 They told us they sold this table for about $3,800.
09:19 [Speaking in foreign language]
09:34 But to him, the work is also about building a reputation for his country.
09:39 [Sawing]
09:44 [Speaking in foreign language]
09:52 [Speaking in foreign language]
10:02 Halfway across the world, in Arizona,
10:05 this national park holds more petrified wood than anywhere else on earth.
10:11 Here, it's much older than in Indonesia, about 200 million years old,
10:16 from the time dinosaurs still roamed the earth.
10:19 Paleontologist William Parker took us on a walk through this forest, frozen in time.
10:27 These trees give us clues of what lived and grew during various times in earth's history,
10:37 when, say, CO2 levels are at a high level and there was no polar ice.
10:42 By examining the color and thickness of the tree rings,
10:47 scientists can sometimes figure out what the climate was when the tree grew.
10:51 They can then use that data to figure out how different weather conditions
10:57 could affect life as we know it.
10:59 Even today, the earth is changing.
11:03 It's important for us to understand what makes it in those type of environments.
11:07 Taking even a chip of petrified wood from here is illegal.
11:12 But officials say tourists steal some anyway.
11:17 I'm clear of Highway 180.
11:21 Though sometimes they send it back.
11:28 As much as we'd like to tell people they'll be cursed if they illegally collect wood,
11:33 they're really not cursed, except for maybe a guilty conscience.
11:37 Because what happens is people start sending us back a whole bunch of stuff.
11:41 The U.S. government spends about $4 million annually to maintain and preserve the park.
11:47 But without federal protection, this natural and scientific wonder could disappear.
11:55 Trees are a major part of our ecosystem and we need to understand everything we can about them.
11:59 Hopefully we can better manage those ecosystems
12:02 or make changes that'll give them the best chance for success.
12:06 In 1941, researchers tried to figure out how much the petrified wood here is worth.
12:13 They estimated that all the visible pieces in this park
12:18 would amount to about $200 million when adjusted for inflation.
12:24 And that doesn't even account for all the trees that are still buried.
12:28 But the park does not place importance on the monetary value of this wood.
12:34 So if we were to collect every single piece of petrified wood on earth and put it in
12:41 stores or collections or in people's houses, we lose the scientific context.
12:47 All across the U.S., people can mine on property they own
12:53 and sell their pieces for thousands of dollars.
12:56 This furniture store in New York City has petrified wood items
13:03 ranging anywhere from $500 to $5,000 each.
13:07 Philip Tuan travels to Indonesia himself to pick out these finds.
13:14 But he doesn't buy from the people we followed for this story.
13:18 Petrified woods are very unique.
13:20 You can't expect what you're going to get, right?
13:23 Before the petrified get milled and cut open, sometimes you don't see what's inside there.
13:29 Stumps sell for anywhere between $1,400 and $1,800 each.
13:35 The bigger items, like tables, go for more,
13:38 ranging in price from about $1,000 to $5,000, depending on the size.
13:45 And it's a piece of the heritage of the whole planet.
13:47 It's just, you know, it's really heavy, solid. It's not going to break down or do anything.
13:51 It's just always going to be beautiful forever. So that's pretty cool, too.
13:55 Back in Indonesia, miners like Eli don't have the privilege of buying these pieces.
14:04 Eli didn't get past elementary school because he had to start working.
14:31 He used to be a motorbike taxi driver, but it wasn't enough to sustain his family.
14:36 So he became a miner, like most other men in this area.
14:55 They own only a petrified wood tray, a small memento from all of Eli's years of mining.
15:02 [NON-ENGLISH SPEECH]
15:04 [NON-ENGLISH SPEECH]