Hey Kelton, I'm hesitant to assume I can narrow it down completely from just the bark, but I bet some of the Trees Forum people would be happy to give it a shot. Use the following code to post the actual picture in you post:

img src="http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7148/6495261197_536368d097_o.jpg"; width=600>

It will give you the following result:

{{gwi:489595}}

Very nice... thanks.

I was kinda surprised at the "black" wood, so I was wondering about the species. Perhaps this is fairly common, but being newish to this area, I was curious.

I already have feedback from the tree forum: It is a Black Walnut.

So I'm just realizing that many trees that have color names are named based upon the internal wood color. This is something of a surprise to me.

I had a strong suspicion that that was what it was, too, but I always think of other possibilities and then start wondering....

Oh, and the color of the wood is not where the name comes from, at least in this case.

Here is an update on the Black Walnut situation...

There is a quarantine on Black Walnut!!! So, you aren't allowed to transport black walnut outside of our county... this, to prevent the spread of a canker disease that has entered our area... and even more, to prevent the spread to the Appalachian mountains.

The wood is usable so long as it stays in my county (Knox).

So far, I'm being told that, although the wood is desirable, it is rarely worth the expense and effort to come and get it for the mill.

The wood could be treated, but that would just add more cost (maybe a lot). Thousand cankers disease was just recently found in Virginia and Pennsylvania too, so, unfortunately, the quarantine may be a tilting-at-windmills situation. TCD seems like it will be the next in line of a string of wide-spread tree diseases (chestnut blight, DED, SOD, etc, etc).

However, the cut sizes shown in the picture could be used for turning (creating bowls. Black walnut is a beautiful wood and I would hate to see it go to waste. You may ask around for some local woodworkers to see if they would want some of those sections.

First time posting here (recent transplant).

Yes... please do not let Black Walnut go to waste! An any woodworker would LOVE to get those pieces!