Hey John I think you are talking about mountain oaks or chestnut oak.

If you find an oak with a shaggy, flaky bark, it's probably a white oak or swamp white oak.
        White Oak
   

        Swamp White Oak
 

The leaves of the two are very different.  The white oak has lobed leaf edges.
 

The swamp white oak has leaves more like a chesnut tree.
 
The acorns of a white oak are about the size of the end joint of a little finger and kind of egg shaped, much longer than round.  Swamp white oak acorns are much larger, more the size of the end joint of your thumb, or larger.  White oaks produce acorns about every 2 years.  

Beechnut, White Oak Acorn, Swamp White Oak Acorn
 

Members of the Red Oak family have a smooth, by comparison, bark that will give you a road rash type wound if you slide down one. Their acorns are smaller, maybe a half inch long, round but flattened on the top and bottom.

Scarlet Oak (a member of the Red Oak family) Bark
 

Scarlet Oak (a member of the Red Oak family) Leaf
 

Phil thumbs up!

Swamp chestnut, swamp white oak, white oak and chestnut oak are all eaten by deer.  They are all white oaks and enjoy the same attraction the white oak family has for deer.  In north Georgia, and likely other places, one can find all four species as their ranges overlap.  Why a deer might walk by one tree and visit another is known only to the deer.

White oaks have less tannin in the acorns and that is why deer will eat them first if given a choice.

Fish Finder- The Aud Field guide is great.
Also Ohio's Forestry website is one of the better ones on the web.


http://ohiodnr.com/tabid/5361/Default.aspx