Osage Orange is a deciduous tree that grows in the southern and central United States and can grow as tall as 60 feet. Its wood is close-grained and similar to locust, and its primary assets are its strength and resilience — features which led to its early use by local Indians. The trees originally grew in Texas, Oklahoma, and Arkansas and the tree takes its name and its identity from its early use for making archery bows and war clubs by the Osage Indians. The average weight of 48.22 pounds per cubic foot.

Early French explorers called it bois d’arc, which means bow wood, and somewhere along the line the wood also picked up the name Bowdark.

The wood made exceptional railroad ties back in the 1870s. Research showed that it proved much more durable than the ties made from oak, chestnut and catalpa, which showed wear after two or three years. The Osage orange ties, checked after 21 years, were as good as when they were cut. Osage orange was also a popular wood for pavement blocks and wheel stock. The first chuckwagon ever built was invented by Charles Goodnight (a famous Texan cattleman) and it was built of seasoned bois d’arc, in order to withstand the terrible usage of bumping over the far-flung Goodnight empire that covered much of the Panhandle in early days.

Osage orange is described as a very hard, heavy, and strong. Its uses include wheels, archery bows, insulator pins, sucker-rod guides, dyewood, turnings, and decorative novelties.