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[21]The Doc Project

From extension cords to a homemade barge, two Edmonton buddies try everything
to extract a petrified stump

A pair of hockey dads went to extreme lengths to move a 70
million-year-old petrified tree from the Edmonton river bank to a
paleontology museum. Indiana Jones would be proud.

Social Sharing

How a rare 800-pound discovery turned a paddle upriver into an Indiana
Jones-style reconnaissance

Ariel Fournier · Posted: Jan 15, 2021 6:58 PM ET | Last Updated:
January 17
Mike Lees and Jeff Penney refused to quit on their quest to bring a
petrified stump from a muddy riverbank to a museum. (Ariel
Fournier/CBC)
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comments
The Doc Project28:10The Stump

Inside the Paleontology Museum at the University of Alberta, past the
giant fish skull at the entrance, you'll find a relic from the time of
the dinosaurs.

The 65 to 75 million-year-old petrified tree stump is the latest
addition to the museum, and is a point of pride in this small room in
the basement of the university's Earth Sciences building.

But what impresses museum curator Lisa Budney most is the discoverers
of the stump, Mike Lees and Jeff Penney, who went on a costly, arduous,
month-long adventure to retrieve it.

"Their willingness to go the extra mile is exceptional," said Budney.
"But also their willingness and acceptance of going through the proper
channels in order to make sure they're collecting things properly."

"That makes them great citizen scientists."

The two friends stumbled on the rare find in the middle of Edmonton
during a canoe ride down the North Saskatchewan River in October 2019.
* [22]Edmonton paddler discovers 65-million-year-old tree stump
during riverbank pee break
* [23]'Once in a lifetime find': Stubborn stump fossil extracted from
Edmonton river valley

The experts were excited, but didn't have the resources to collect it.

If these hockey dads didn't move it, it was likely to wash away down
the river by the following spring.

"I don't think I would have ever forgotten if I just left it there and
let it go downriver," Penney said.

Once the two men made it their mission to extract the fossilized tree,
they refused to be stumped.

Excitement over find

The day of the discovery, Lees asked Penney to join him for an
after-work paddle.

An hour down the river, and a few drinks later, Penney needed to pull
over for a pee break.

The spot they chose is on a narrow muddy bank along the river. A steep
cliff about 30 metres tall separates it from any walking trails.

Lees liked this place because he would often find shells or fish
skeletons here. A minute after they pulled over, he realized he was
standing on top of something.

Friends discover 65-million-year-old tree stump

3 days agoVideo
1:22
Mike Lees and Jeff Penney stumbled upon an 800-pound fossilized tree
stump while canoeing down the North Saskatchewan River. They made it
their mission to move it — but how? 1:22

"I was really excited at the time," Lees said. "You could tell that
there was a difference between what was on the outside of the tree and
the inside of the tree. It looked like bark, but it was stone bark."

They sensed this could be a major discovery, so they sent pictures of
it to the University of Alberta.

Based on its fossilization and location, scientists were able to
estimate the age of the stump: the tree was a conifer from the
cretaceous period.

A paleontologist at the Royal Tyrrell Museum in Drumheller, Alta.,
called Penney to tell him the news.

"I was thinking it's like two million years old. He goes, 'Jeff, it's
estimated it's probably around 65 million years old. It's a tree stump
with the roots and the bark,'" Penney recalled.
A close-up of the petrified tree stump on the day Lees and Penney
discovered it. (Submitted by Mike Lees)

Even though the tree had barely moved from its original place for
millions of years, the area around the river is continuously changing
in small ways.

By spring 2020, a large section of the muddy bank where the stump stood
was largely washed away, which is why Lees and Penney feared it might
have been lost if they didn't move it before winter.

The university couldn't secure any funds to collect the stump without a
clear research objective, but Budney, the curator they consulted with,
was eager to put it on display at the museum.

"I've never seen anything this big come out of our river valley since
I've been working here," she said.
University of Alberta museum curator Lisa Budney built a display in the
paleontology museum for Penney and Lees's Edmonton discovery. (Ariel
Fournier/CBC)

No stone unturned

After hours of paperwork and e-mails between researchers at the
university, paleontologists in Drumheller and Alberta Environment and
Parks, they received permission from the province to move it, if they
wanted to.

To make sure the stump was still retrievable, Penney and Lees did some
reconnaissance work.

They found a path through the woods that led to the top of the cliff
over the stump, which was faster than taking a canoe.

On a sunny fall day, the two of them rappelled down the 30-metre bank,
using extension cords from Penney's truck. The stump was still there —
as glorious as when they found it.

On the first attempt to remove it, they borrowed a hunting boat. But
even with several men to lift the stump, it was too heavy. They also
worried the weight of the stump could sink the back of the boat.

Lees even called Edmonton Fire Rescue Services, but ultimately, they
weren't able to help either.

Then, Lees and Penney recruited some friends to build their own barge.
They took a half-dozen 50-gallon plastic drums and strapped them to a
deck they built over a few hours. But they worried that the barge would
not be sturdy enough either.

"We were using our best creative ideas to make it work, but it just
wasn't happening," Penney said.

By this time, it was November, and they were brushing snow off the
stump. They realized they needed to bring in professionals.

Penney called a company that did on-the-water and underwater repairs.

"Usually when we're picking something up, it's a man-made problem,
someone's dropped a truck, people go out and sink boats," said Bill
Stark, a marine operations manager at Northern Underwater Systems.
"It's not someone who lost a rock."

"Once they explained what they had and the situation, it became more
intriguing," he said.

Penney spent his own money to pay Stark and his crew to remove the
rock.

Crew moves 800-pound tree stump

3 days agoVideo
0:28
A professional crew hired by Jeff Penney moves an ancient fossilized
tree stump onto an industrial boat to transport it to the University of
Alberta. 0:28

When the conditions were perfect, right before the river froze over,
they loaded it onto an industrial boat and brought it to the museum.

A day later and the river would have been filled with too much ice for
the boat to travel on.

A place in history

At around 800 pounds, there are very few petrified trees from this era
that are this large and well-preserved, on display anywhere in the
world, according to Budney.

University paleobotanist Eva Koppelhus was able to take samples from
the core of the tree and find evidence of pre-historic ferns growing on
its base.

"It's a great find because it's often that people find just smaller
pieces of wood, but this was a stump and it looked like it was nearly
in situ," she said.
Mike Lees looks at the downtown view from the water where he and Penney
found the petrified stump. He still goes for a paddle whenever he can,
whether or not there's something to discover. (Ariel Fournier)

It's a signpost of a time back when this wintry city was a hot muggy
swampland along a seaway.

The stump still sits on the pallets it was dragged in on since it's too
heavy to move without a lift.

Lees and Penney have both brought their kids to see it in person.

"I'll be satisfied for a long time knowing that people are going to be
able to appreciate this thing long beyond my life," Lees said.

(Submitted by Ariel Fournier)About the producer

Ariel Fournier is an associate producer at CBC Edmonton. She's produced
radio documentaries about a 70-year-old wrestler with a flashy hat,
adult adoption and the lasting influence of autotune.

This documentary was edited by Julia Pagel.

More from this episode

* Personal Essay
I starred in a zombie-themed driver safety video. It went even
worse than you'd expect
* [24]From extension cords to a homemade barge, two Edmonton buddies
try everything to extract a petrified stump
* [25]FULL EPISODE: A funny thing happened on the way to the forest

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