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Author Topic: Osage Monster  (Read 3518 times)

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Offline Eric Krewson

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Osage Monster
« on: December 20, 2014, 10:11:30 am »
Years ago I noticed this tree across a field and behind a cemetery in Muscle Shoals, I could tell it was huge but never looked at it close up and forgot about it.

A couple of days ago I was in my gym parking lot and saw an the same osage tree I had forgotten about 20 years ago. It was hidden by a row of arborvitae trees but I could catch a glimpse of it through the screen of greenery and decided to check it out.

My first close up look at this tree took my breath away, although there is nothing in the picture to  indicate its actual size, it is between 5 and 6 feet in diameter.

I have seen some huge osage trees in my day but this one tops them all. It has been pruned at some time I the past as there are limbs at least 15" in diameter that have been cut off on the top of the tree. These limbs might have been bow quality but it is unlikely that the trunk would be worth fooling with, gnarly in an understatement for its condition.



   
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Offline osage outlaw

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Re: Osage Monster
« Reply #1 on: December 20, 2014, 10:41:02 am »
Very cool.  Thanks for posting a picture of it. 
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I started out with nothin' and I still got most of it left

Offline Pat B

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Re: Osage Monster
« Reply #2 on: December 20, 2014, 11:12:31 am »
I wonder how old a tree like that is and what stories it could tell?
 I remember years ago a guy posted a pic of a big osage like this one that he wanted help to cut down. I think it was even bigger than this one. It was growing between two houses. I don't think he attempted it. Just trying to figure how you would split the butt log once it was on the ground was a dilemma. Someone suggested an exploding wedge made for splitting big tree trunks.
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Make the most of all that comes and the least of all that goes!    Pat Brennan  Brevard, NC

Offline toomanyknots

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Re: Osage Monster
« Reply #3 on: December 20, 2014, 11:36:38 am »
There is some like that by where my osage patch is, they can get huge.
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"The way of heaven is like the bending of a bow-
 the upper part is pressed down,
 the lower part is raised up,
 the part that has too much is reduced,
 the part that has too little is increased."

- Tao Te Ching, 77, A new translation by Victor H. Mair

Offline bowmo

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Re: Osage Monster
« Reply #4 on: December 20, 2014, 12:08:57 pm »
Man that thing is a beast. When I was living in southern IL I found 3 of the hugest osage trees I have ever seen on a 100+ year old plantation style farm. The trunks were about that big around but much but much much cleaner and taller straight trunks. I would have never thought they could even be osage if it weren't for the biggest hedge apples I've ever seen occasionally raining down.
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Offline bradsmith2010

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Re: Osage Monster
« Reply #5 on: December 20, 2014, 12:24:47 pm »
thats a beautiful tree , thanks for posting
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Offline Comancheria

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Re: Osage Monster
« Reply #6 on: December 20, 2014, 01:12:12 pm »
Don't know whether This link will work.  But this relates to the famous Osage on George Washington's "River Ranch".  Various stories say it was a) a gift from Jefferson to Washington and b) brought back East as a seedling by he Lewis and Clark expedition.  Both cannot be true because Washington was dead before the expedition set out.  Still, I wonder if I could get permission from the current owner to come in with a Stihl and...

https://www.google.com/search?q=river+farm+osage+orange+tree&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ei=H66VVMegIIubyAS4pYGYAw&ved=0CAcQ_AUoAQ&biw=320&bih=460#facrc=_&imgrc=Ipcymm1RjQHxXM%253A%3BsTbvQu7fy0h64M%3Bhttp%253A%252F%252Fgardenrant.com%252Fwp-content%252Fuploads%252F2012%252F10%252FAHS-osage-orange-Rose-Cooper-Kurt-Bluemel-0922121.jpg%3Bhttp%253A%252F%252Fgardenrant.com%252F2012%252F10%252Fthe-undaunted-and-undented-osage-orange-2.html%3B480%3B640

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When sinew-backed Live Oak flatbows with Agave-fiber strings shooting arrows made from river cane are outlawed, only outlaws will have sinew-backed Live Oak flatbows with Agave-fiber strings shooting arrows made from river cane!

Offline Carson (CMB)

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Re: Osage Monster
« Reply #7 on: December 20, 2014, 04:21:18 pm »
Cool tree! I wonder if it is male or female. And if it is female if as tree that age still produces.
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"The bow is the old first lyre,
the mono chord, the initial rune of fine art
The humanities grew out from archery as a flower from a seed
No sooner did the soft, sweet note of the bow-string charm the ear of genius than music was born, and from music came poetry and painting and..." Maurice Thompso

Offline George Tsoukalas

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Re: Osage Monster
« Reply #8 on: December 20, 2014, 06:45:19 pm »
Eric. that sure is a big one. I also saw a big osage in KY at some fort.

Is that the same Muscle Shoals  mentioned in the song "Sweet Home Alabama"...Lord I'm comin' home to you...?
Jawge
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Offline Danzn Bar

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Re: Osage Monster
« Reply #9 on: December 20, 2014, 06:55:54 pm »
Quote from: George Tsoukalas on December 20, 2014, 06:45:19 pm
Eric. that sure is a big one. I also saw a big osage in KY at some fort.
/quote]

Jawge,
That is one of the coolest osage trees I have ever seen.  It is at Fort Harrod in Harrodsburg KY, the first settlement in KY back in the 1700's.  If anyone is close to Harrodsburg Ky is worth the time to see it....
DBar
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Offline Eric Krewson

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Re: Osage Monster
« Reply #10 on: December 20, 2014, 08:31:16 pm »
Yep George one and the same, most of the osage in my stash came from Muscle Shoals.
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