It does have a sassafras look to it. Take you axe or hatchet and nick off some bark. If it's orangish looking that's what it is. But, I'm going with Rock aka chestnut oak.
I agree that the bark somewhat resembles chestnut oak, but the form of the trunk and shape of the canopy says sassafras. That’s a good size one too.
Yea, it could be a mature poplar. Gonna need to do the bark test. Sassafras will be orange in color within the bark.
Ahh I see what you're driving at. If the bark at the top of the crown gets really smooth and changes to a lighter gray then it could be bigtooth aspen/poplar. I know sassafras has a little bit of a woven bark pattern which I'm not seeing here.
My immediate thought with the bark and the twisty nature of the stem was sassafras. If it's not, interesting!
I blew up the pic on the computer this morning where the dogleg is and the branch sticking just doesn't look sassafras. I've been wrong before. Just ask Mrs. FS.
I agree, and I'm not 100% sold on the sassafras anymore. There's a stand of bigtooth aspen not far from where I'm at that I'm going to take another look at later today and post pictures.
If it was in my part of the world I would guess cottonwood. But the rest of the country has so many more varieties that I’m never likely to get a crack at so I don’t have a clue. Aspen and poplar and cottonwood are all in the same family, yes? So maybe…
