In 1989 a surface-mining company in Tennessee unearthed a stump buried 30 feet underground. The two-ton stump measures 15 feet in circumference and almost 6 feet in diameter. Geologists from the University of Kentucky indicate this is not a petrified stump but a sandstone replacement of a tree that was growing 300 to 315 million years ago. The tree rotted or dissolved and was replaced with sandstone rather than petrified agate-like material found in the Petrified Forests of the US. Billy J. Kidd of McCreary County, an employee of the surface-mining company, brought the stump to the McCreary County Museum, and a crane was used to place this unusual specimen in its present location.