Both trees are dead, so no leaves to show. They were three feet apart on the edge of a lowland where there is a large variety of tree species.
I would guess oak. I think pignut would show a little more definition in the ridges. If its hickory the bark should be real hard, identifiable by touch alone with your eyes closed.
Hmm. Have you got a cross section of it cut yet? I don't think it's any sort of hickory. At first look, I'd say cottonwood or maybe elm, but I'm leaning cottonwood.
I didn't end up cutting it. Went with some dead ash instead. Didn't want to waste time on it without knowing what it was. My luck it would turn out to be garbage wood. No time to waste on junk with all that beautiful ash lying around! I realize it is very hard to identify from pictures. Thanks for the guesses everybody.
How the inner bark is "shagging" off on the left of the pic has me really thinking its cottonwood. Only a poplar family wood does it like that. At my wood lot, there's a nice red oak no further than 15 feet from a patch of cottonwood of the same dbh. Until they leafed out I thought it was a cottonwood too. There were red oak leaves and acorns around, so I knew there was a red oad somewhere.
I think the one on the left there is elm. Don't know the one on the right.......er, it could be 'tiswood'
