I thought it was probably black cherry. Thanks for confirming.
I have a few cherries, but nothing really big - - - or straight. I think my largest is about 14".
It is very likely that my area was logged about 60 years ago (give or take a few years). Probably happened about the time that Lake Lanier was a concept on the drawing board and the Corps was specking out property to buy up. Folks in the swath in or near the area to be flooded probably grabbed as much as they could from the land before the government came calling. Even though the lake is 38,000 acres, they bought up about 56,000 acres from over 700 families.
As a result of this, I don't have any really old trees in my area. And while the yellow poplar, white oak, northern red oak, and hickories are doing just fine - there are very few really large trees. And this is doubly true for black cherry. I'm not sure how small a tree of a desirable species needs to be to get ignored during a logging operation, but I would guess there were some 10 to 15 year old trees that escaped at the time.
WDH, your observations about yellow poplar being a "pioneer species" on cleared land are very accurate when you look at the growth patterns in my area.
As for the cherries, I can only guess that they were probably a highly desirable timber species 60 years ago - and remain so today.
