A splitting we will go...I need a tree ID..a splitting we will go.

Sorry I don't know why it smells like that to me. Never have liked the smell other than to kelp me ID what I'm cutting.

 

Something about the thickness go the bark that makes me think to keep looking past red oak. Red oak has very thick bark, I didn't see thick bark like that on the wood shown.
Here is some red oak

 

I am absolutely no expert but my first thought it was western hemlock. Not that it grows in your area.

 

Yes, definitely not thick bark like the oak Ive split.

 

Swamp Ash

 

Man I hate when I get that.

 

Another -1 on the Oak. Bark, end grain look like something else...

 

Bark looks wrong for red oak or elm to me. At least where I'm at those both have a distinct bark. The elm here wouldn't split that clean either. Just my $0.2...

 

Another -1 on the "smells like dog chit" comment.
I have dogs, and Oak smells nothing like their chit.
Trust me on this.

 

Doesn't look like any cherry or hickory I've seen. Both have different bark, color, and smells distinctly good. I'm voting for an oak, just not like the red ones around here. But could be....

 

They must be eating something other than your oak trees?

 

Hickory like Scotty said was my first and only thought. I'm officially calling it North American firewood.

 

Yep... prolly even makes heat...

 

How did the rest of it split? more pics?

 

It split like the one I show. A little stringy but not bad. Nothing like the elm I split. More like ash.

 

I split well over a cord of green ash this summer. The bark was thicker, and more furrowed. Looked very similar to the red oak rounds pictured earlier. Could be blue ash, which would make geographical sense; as Iowa borders on it's native range.