The Petrified Frog of Newcastle
A geological curiosity unearthed 700 feet below the surface in a local coal mine.
T. B. Corey, general superintendent of the Oregon Improvement Company's coal mines at Newcastle and Franklin, has a collection of geological specimens in his office that are very interesting and instructive. The latest specimen is a petrified frog taken from the slope of the new mine at Newcastle 700 feet below the surface. The frog is a piece of hard sandstone, and is six inches long and two and one-half inches wide. The head, the legs and the spinal cord are very plainly marked, while there are strips of wrinkled petrified black skin on the sides of the body. The lines of the head indicate that the frog was a very large one, the bones above the eyes being heavy and prominent. It is as plainly marked a specimen of petrified animal life as is found and Mr. Corey, of course, prizes it very highly. How the frog got into the stone and how long ago he lived is a problem for geological students to wrestle with. It is possible that the frog several thousand years or more ago went to sleep in the sand and never woke up. In time the sand turned into stone, and the frog became petrified. The finding of the specimen 700 feet down in the ground also gives an impression of its great age.
“How the frog got into the stone and how long ago he lived is a problem for geological students to wrestle with.”
This story captures the era's fascination with the deep time revealed by the region's aggressive industrial expansion. While the 'petrified frog' was likely a geological oddity or a misidentified concretion, it highlights how mining operations in Newcastle were literally digging up the prehistoric past of the Pacific Northwest.
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