Ever see a branch like this?

[tadmaz]

Shagbark, has a branch that is high up, and goes down to about a foot above the ground, then back up a few feet. Never seen anything like it.

 

[CincyBurner]

Perhaps limb from neighboring tree crashed on it and weighed it down for a bit (wound on defending branch) ?
Or just natural growth response to shade from adjacent dominant tree ?

 

[peakbagger]

You obviously havent seen a beech tree, straight branches are a rarity

 

[CincyBurner]

Took a walk in Spring Grove Cemetery today.
Saw a couple grand old legacy shade trees (oaks) with limbs that sweep down to the ground and then up a bit.

 

[Sawset]

Branches that spread low are an indication that it spent many years in an open area, vs in a forested area. A lot of woodlands have become overgrown since settlement, but the original inhabitants can still be found by their very pronounced spreading branch structure. Look up open oak savanna to get an idea of what things originally looked like in this part of Wisconsin. Here, we're right on the edge between prairie and the beginnings of denser woodlands. Prairie, and open oak savana both predominate. The brush and smaller trees in the background around the hickory were also probably far less dense or non-existent that they are now. Annual fires would have kept competition reduced. A cross section of the branch will show very tight rings on top, wide rings on the bottom. Amazing how they can extend 50ft or more, searching for the light, totally self suported.

 

[weatherguy]

It is weird but not unusual, if you really look at trees you will see some weird stuff.

 

[tadmaz]

Branches that spread low are an indication that it spent many years in an open area, vs in a forested area. A lot of woodlands have become overgrown since settlement, but the original inhabitants can still be found by their very pronounced spreading branch structure. Look up open oak savanna to get an idea of what things originally looked like in this part of Wisconsin. Here, we're right on the edge between prairie and the beginnings of denser woodlands. Prairie, and open oak savana both predominate. The brush and smaller trees in the background around the hickory were also probably far less dense or non-existent that they are now. Annual fires would have kept competition reduced. A cross section of the branch will show very tight rings on top, wide rings on the bottom. Amazing how they can extend 50ft or more, searching for the light, totally self suported.

A few weeks ago I was looking at a pre-settlement PDF. Sure enough, Waukesha county was mostly oak savanna. The location of this hickory was Hartland, just north and east of you. A whole bunch of huge burr oaks and hickories, remnants of oak savanna. This was the biggest hickory I've seen in a while, probably didn't have much around it until recently. Besides a hill that is being well maintained, sadly buckthorn and honeysuckle was gone crazy at this spot.
(broken link removed to http://images.library.wisc.edu/WI/EFacs/transactions/WT1981/reference/wi.wt1981.jrdorney.pdf)

 

[RockCastile]

In my neck of the woods, black cherry is the horizontal master.

 

[SpaceBus]

Branches that spread low are an indication that it spent many years in an open area, vs in a forested area. A lot of woodlands have become overgrown since settlement, but the original inhabitants can still be found by their very pronounced spreading branch structure. Look up open oak savanna to get an idea of what things originally looked like in this part of Wisconsin. Here, we're right on the edge between prairie and the beginnings of denser woodlands. Prairie, and open oak savana both predominate. The brush and smaller trees in the background around the hickory were also probably far less dense or non-existent that they are now. Annual fires would have kept competition reduced. A cross section of the branch will show very tight rings on top, wide rings on the bottom. Amazing how they can extend 50ft or more, searching for the light, totally self suported.

We cut down a "yard" balsam fir recently that had branches going straight up the size of whole trees. Tight rings on top, fat on the bottom. I'll have to snag a pic of the log since I want to try and saw them.

 

[hickoryhoarder]

As others have said, that tree had a lot of space. If you're ever in Cincinnati, check out the oldest tree in Spring Grove Cemetery, maybe 250-300 year-old oak. Not very tall, but some branches look like 40 feet from trunk to end.

 

[Sawset]

I have a picture, taken near bald bluff in the southern kettle moraine state forest, 1950s. No forest, no trees, except for a very few larger oaks (saguaro national park in Tucson is also considered a forest). Times have changed. Most of the area had been open oaks/prairie, then farms that failed during the 30s, then DNR forest land that has turned to mostly saplings, brush, and dying oaks. The farms were doomed because the kettle moraine is mostly outwash sand and gravel, an interglacial river bed. They are slowly realising reality, and getting back to controlled fires, clearcutting the honeysuckle and other brush, and logging out the dead and dying. It's starting to look a lot better, but far different than what would pass as so called dense forest. Hiking and biking the trails, the old timers with far reaching branches can still be seen, but the damage has already been done. Understory brush and trees have killed off the lower branches on most. Oak wilt is ravaging the area in the last few years. What's left are mostly younger, taller, and now only by force, open.