I have stopped by to see the Angel Oak on a couple of occasions and found the tree to be quite a sight. It is a Southern Live Oak which is the tree from which most of the lumber came from that was used to build the first ships used in a new U.S. Navy. The wood from the Southern Live Oak is very hard and has been known to repel cannon balls. The USS Constitution was mostly made up of lumber cut from a Southern Live Oak and during the war of 1812 had several English cannon balls bounce off of her thus helping her earn the nickname "Old Ironsides".