yes, they are different

Your ground is a blessing . What little I have is plagued with spruce bud worm and pine beetle . plus a horde of deer ! I give thanks for the place daily ! Went to the government land today and cut some 17 ft corral poles .Good straight lodgepole pine . Thank the good Lord for that !

Wow

A couple of pictures of the old oak from a different place.



And some of the areas I need to thin.

One of the places that I cut firewood on has registered trees that are some of the oldest in the state. I few years ago we cut up a branch that feel off in a storm. That one branch was over 20 inches across.

Was a time I was called to haul away a 6 foot diameter bur oak. As there was a fellow studing the growth rings , I dropped off a cross section of it.
It was on Winchester Street in Winnipeg which was opposite to the air field where in WW1 they had trenches for rifle practice and there was photos for the pilots to read. There was a house with a wee house with a cresent moon in the photo. Water and sewar was put in that area in 1960 and the tree was cut in 1990. The last 30 years the rings were decreasing because of the lack of night watering. Up to 1880 -1890 they use to run a passenger pigeon trap under that tree. It was only living from 1830 to 1990. Unfortunatel that tree could not be used for climate change because of the feeding it got. There was about 30 rounds found in the wood that I split...who knows what came out of the ashes of the firewood sold.

I got 10 years of firewood out of a Burr Oak that was 63" dia ABH.

You should probably be executed! Get that milled!

If it were white oak I'd agree with you, red oak, not so much.

I wonder what stunted its growth?

Fighting for light/dealing with a tall canopy and/or living on a north facing slope most of it's life would be my guess.

Some of the nicest timber I ever cut was on northern facing exposures. Southern facing always seemed smaller. Possibly soil conditions? Another thought is there couldnt have been bigger trees crowding it the whole 160 years? The ring spacing looks all the same from what I see in the picture.

What a difference your climate has on trees . A red oak in my area that same size would likely be less than 50 years old . I’ve cut red oak that was over three foot across and they were only a handful that made 120 years. They usually just don’t live that long in this area.

I sanded, got the wood wet to easier count the rings and used an app as well. Tree sprouted in 1782. 241 years old.

The fellow that was doing the collecting here in Manitoba was doing 10 year intervals of the growth, burr oak does show some related dry-wet conditions in it's rings. Through different sections of wood from settlers buildings, washed up logs and some found stumps with the glacial rebound of Lake Winnipeg. Dates from 0360AD to 1980. Eric Nelson or Nelsen the danish way of spelling

many times the silk worms would completely devoid the trees so many false rings have to be looked at. There is a silk worm that comes out and feeds in late July on the burr oaks here. It is not as bright and beautiful as the Luna or Polythemus

That is really cool. Imagine the things that tree could tell you if it could see its surroundings and talk about what happened around it over the course of 2 1/2 centuries. Very cool.

I was thinking the same thing.

That tree is a lot older than I expected. I agree with sweetWilliam on the valve of red oak currently.

Remember that Burr oak when it goes overseas is classified as " English brown oak" and you thought red oak was of value.
when they can ship it air express that means big $$$$ to get it to market