Long *** story, but your tree hits too close to home.
I bought my first house in Dallas in 2011 because of the tree in the front yard, a live oak like you are talking about in size. It was absolutely glorious. Everything I (think I) knew about trees told me this sucker was 150-250 years old. The circumference was over 18' at chest height. Crown had over 100' of span. A simple formula for estimating a live oaks age is 3.5 x diameter at 4' in inches... So 3.5 x 72" = 252 years
The branches were like tree trunks themselves and there were at least 10 of them. I called a local arborist and we had the tree registered as a "significant tree" to protect it if I ever sold the house. He estimated the age similar as I did and had a tree appraiser come by and say it was worth over $200k. I mean, Where else are you going to get a tree that big in Dallas, TX? Man I was proud of my tree.
Fast forward a few years and my next door neighbor has a nearly as impressive red oak. Nowhere near the diameter, but a big, tall, booming 17er. A 120+ year old tree no doubt. About 2015 they started getting mushrooms everywhere in the yard, especially near the tree. They called arborists and experts from everywhere to try to cure their sick tree. After a year or so and losing a huge limb, that just missed their house, they were told it was time to cut the big boy. My tree was perfectly healthy, but it was still nerve racking. Both of our houses were built in the 50's on pier and beam foundations so roots were everywhere, but the houses were good. Our concrete, not so much.
They had a company come remove the tree and it took a week to get it down to just the trunk. When they finally cut the tree down, we went to count the rings... And holy ****, the tree was was 58 years old. Planted 2 years after the house was built.... I was dumbfounded. Every single ring was 3/4" apart for the first 50 years. It slowed when it started getting sick.
Was my big ***, 18+' circumference tree less than 60 years old? Went down the street to see Mr Joe. 88 year old man that lived in the neighborhood since 55'. Remembered everything about them building my house in 56' and there was not a blade of grass in that front yard much less a tree when the house was finished he said. It was planted right after construction. Size of a twig.
To verify, I found a collection of aerial photos at SMU that confirmed it was pasture land in the 40's and you could not even see a resemblance of a tree in 1960 from the air.
It was an old neighborhood and there were plenty of good sized trees, but this sucker and it's red oak buddy blew them all away. Some combination of the soil, sunlight, lack of competition, watering of the lawn, and fertilizing made these trees grow 4-5 times faster than I could have ever imagined.
Ended up selling the house for probably $100k more than it was worth in 2018 to a couple that wanted to tear the house (1600sf) down and build a Mcmansion there because they loved the damn tree.
Long winded, but there is no telling how old a tree is sometimes. If the conditions are right and the competition for resources is low, those suckers are like Andre the Giant.
Pictures of the tree when I replaced sidewalk and driveway in 2017.
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After the yuppies tore down my house to build their big box... And yes, the 17er was an Aggie.
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