Stump the Readers: The Answers

So this is what we know about this tree.    It's a white oak [I think].    The truth is that I am unreliable at the tree bark ID thing.   If you know better, feel free to correct me.  This stump stayed pale even after a long rainy day, so I'm reasonably confident.   The red oaks go red when wet.

From the holes on the lower half, you can see that this tree was damaged early on and never really recovered.   You can see the scar at the bottom of the pic.   It's big and low - probably damage from a bush hog.   The tree was near the road.  

Also, the growth pattern is much smaller on the bottom half - another indicator of serious damage that it never really recovered from.

Those little dots.   Cool, huh!    Those are the streaks of spalting.going up the tree.  Spalting is the dark marking caused by any of a number of fungi feeding on the tree.   The wiki link has some more really interesting information about it and some great pics of spalted wood. 

Congratulations to you guys who figured out how old it was from the rings!  

I've got my eye out for more interesting stumps, so stay tuned for our next installment.