The fossil stump of an ancient tree is hoisted from the site of its discovery near Gilboa, New York, in 1921. The Gilboa Fossil Forest, in n Schoharie County, New York, is cited as home to the Earth's oldest forest. The region is home to tree trunks from the Devonian Period, which occurred roughly 380 million years ago. The fossils, some of the only survivors of their type in the world, are remnants of the Earth's earliest forests. This location has been of great interest to paleobotanists since the 1920s when NYC began a water project and excavation for a dam. Previously named Eospermatopteris (ancient seed fern) these earliest trees had survived only as broken standing bases and trunks, all around 1-3 feet high, but more detailed glimpses of the past emerged in 2005 more intact specimens were uncovered, complete with crowns.