The history of a gas station that's older than dinosaurs (16 photos)

In 1932, lumber merchant William Brown grew tired of ordinary wood. He decided to build a building from what was literally lying around under his feet.





Only this wasn't just any wood. It was a forest that had turned to stone 175 million years ago.



Brown hewed the petrified tree trunks and built a real house out of them, complete with a storefront and roof. He even made the floor from the wood. Then he hung a sign: gas station. And added in small print: the oldest in the world. Because the building materials were indeed over a hundred million years old.





It was so unusual that Robert Ripley personally came to see it and wrote a column in his collection "Believe It or Not." Tourists stopped not only for gas but also to take photos against the backdrop of the amazing walls.



After Brown's death in 1957, Stagner Inc. bought the gas station and converted it into a car dealership. The oldest car dealership in the world, of course. However, selling cars from a stone shack proved to be a bit cramped. In 1974, the office moved to a larger building nearby, leaving the petrified shack behind rows of used pickups.



Now this building hides behind iron horses that drink gasoline. Gasoline from ancient plants. Only those plants didn't fossilize; they turned into oil and went into the fuel tanks of cars parked near the walls of their petrified relative.





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