LITCHFIELD PARK, Ariz. — It's dumb luck that a saguaro on Trever Cagle's property would meet the same fate as others he was reading about in the news.
"I was reading an article the day before, it (told) about how saguaros are falling because of the heat," the Litchfield Park resident said. Experts recently warned saguaros were struggling in the record-breaking heat wave in Arizona, and many would likely not survive.
Twenty-four hours later, Cagle's 15-foot saguaro was broken in half.
"I have three of them," Cagle said. "Out of nowhere, this thing falls."
The signs were there, but not exactly obvious. The base of the saguaro was discolored, it was turning yellow. But Cagle never thought it was on its last legs.
But once it cracked, it was easy to see the inside was already drying out. The spines inside already look like bones sticking out of it.
Now, Cagle's stuck with half a saguaro in the ground, and half a saguaro on the ground; one that easily weighs more than a hundred pounds.
The thing is though, that broken cactus could be worth a lot of money.
Cactus skeletons, as they're called, are valuable. People make art out of them, they make furniture, plant stands -- some people just stick them in their homes as decor.
Online, they're selling for anywhere from a couple hundred, to thousands of dollars.
"Decorations and restaurants, in stores, that type of thing," Bernadine McCollum said.
McCollum owns mmMesquite, a furniture and decor business in Wickenburg. She collects her own saguaro skeletons from the desert. She knows how expensive they can be to buy.
The pieces on her website go for up to $4,500.
She also knows something else about saguaros: They take a long time to get to the skeleton stage.
"It's a really labor-intensive process to clean these," McCollum said.
Most of the saguaro skeletons you see have gotten that way through time. Lots of time.
McCollum estimates it takes a couple of years, if not a full decade, for a saguaro to completely dry out to the point where it can be used.
So if Cagle wants to sell his half a cactus, it would be an investment.
"I'm gonna let it dry out for a week," he said, "and then if nobody wants to come get it for free, I'm gonna chop it up and take it to the dump."
And in a few years, there may be plenty more.