The pine in northern Wisconsin must be more dense than what we have growing wild here, scrub pine practically explodes when struck by lightning, so does poplar. Old folks out in the country say poplar “draws” lightning because they’ve got so much water in them. Say the same about dogs too, no idea where that comes from. Chaining them to trees, probably.
Actually the tree was a red-pine planted by my dad in the mid 60’s. They’re very wet right under the bark where the thin membrane separates the bark from the core. Very wet and heavy until they dry out. It was probably 60 feet tall at the time and still has the scar 10 years later