In 1903, a French geological survey team in the central Sahara documented petrified tree trunks whose dimensions the lead surveyor's field notes describe as requiring entirely new language to record accurately. Not the scale of Arizona's Petrified Forest. Something categorically larger — mineralized trunk sections corresponding to organisms no botanical reference of the era could classify. The preliminary report was compiled, typeset, and distributed to limited institutional circulation. Within months it was recalled.
We trace the 1903 survey — the team, the route, the institutional backing, and the chain of events between field documentation and recall.
