When I got in this evening I was hoping to post pics of the characters scribed into a burr oak in 1875. I'm sad to report that won't happen.
About two years ago we began a transmission line survey. Near one of the many corners we either located or restablished stood a huge oak tree. The notes revealed in 1875 a 10" burr oak was used as a bearing tree. After a bit of research I determined that this 60" monstrousity was surely that tree.
Well time came for construction and the tree fell within the clearing limits. I asked the clearing contractor to roll the trunk out of the way with the flo-orange "x" side up and give me some time to perform tree surgery.
This thing was beast. With the tree laying flat the root ball was almost 7 foot tall. Two hours of track hoe chiseling got us down through the 'overburden' and we hopped on it with axes, wedges and chainsaws. With guidance from the ring pattern we dug deeper and deeper and found....the trunk was hollow. To the tune of an almost 18" void running through the center.
Apparently some time in its life the tree suffered either some sort of insect damage or, more likely, fire. The center was hollow, with secondary growth completely encompassing what was probably the original trunk. The void ran from about a foot below ground up through the trunk for about 10 or 12 feet. We chunked out the entire side of the tree that would have held our evidence...nothing.
A valiant effort by my guys in the 95 degree plus temps and the time invested by the clearing crew. Win some, lose some. But we tried.
You did your best and it was good enough. Nobody could expect more.
Here in central Ohio we are at the very east end of the range of the burr oak, a real Midwestern tree. Sadly, we lost our number two tree earlier this summer, a 72" 300 year old example:
The rotting in the core resembles your description.
