The Orange Coast College Foundation has added another petrified wood log to its collection, bringing the number of fossilized logs on campus to four.
At 4,800 pounds, the most recent petrified log is the largest OCC has ever received and is estimated to be around 225 million years old. The fossil comes from the estate of Marla Bird in Corona Del Mar, which previously gifted OCC three petrified logs in 2012 and generously offered to pay to have the most recent gift moved by crane to OCC’s campus.
“These logs come from trees originally located in what is now Arizona, during the Triassic period,” says Horticulture lab coordinator and instructor Joe Stead. “Petrified wood forms when downed trees are submerged in water, and later covered in volcanic ash. The result is that over hundreds of thousands of years, the silica from the ash turns the wood into stone, forming petrified wood.”
Bird’s husband, Ken, originally purchased the petrified logs at a museum auction in Oklahoma City, later shipping them to his home in Corona Del Mar where they were placed around his yard. Marla Bird’s son, Kelly Christensen, first approached Stead about donating the logs after attending a lecture about the use of rocks in garden design in 2012. “This log, in addition to the previous three, is an extremely generous gift, and certainly will benefit students across many disciplines at OCC for many years to come,” says Foundation Executive Director Doug Bennett.
All of the petrified logs at OCC are placed in the College’s horticulture gardens, with the newest log placed just outside the garden’s entrance.
Marla Bird passed away on July 24 of this year, at the age of 92. She was a passionate supporter of the local arts, serving as the President of the Laguna Art Museum for a number of years. She is survived by her four children, Kelly, Melissa, Kate and Dave, stepchildren Ellen, Pristen, Deborah, and Ann, as well as numerous grandchildren and great-grandchildren.