To my knowledge there have never been pigs in the area. I do have sheep and have had goats in the past, but have never observed them causing any damage to any of the mature cherry trees. When viewed in person, I do not see any signs of damage. Just a difference in bark thickness and texture as pictured.
My vote is on their own roots damaged by something. Looks like callusing from some sort of mechanical damage.
Prayers and support to all families affected by hurricane helene.
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Went with own root just because I’ve seen some random old cherries in my neighborhood have a weird change in bark closer to the bottom (but not to this degree). I assumed it was a response to something, disease or some other stress maybe.
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In public places I’ve seen this on grafted ornamental cherries quite a bit. When I say grafted, it’s that I know they are a clone grafted up high on a rootstock to form a standard, but what I don’t know is if those trees are also grafted down low with an interstem making up the trunk.
By the way, I did cut down this cherry (despite it being in good health) because the trees were over crowded to the point that there was almost no vegetation on the ground between the trees (too much shade). I intend to cut a cross section into the trunk and will post a picture once I’ve made the cut.
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To be honest, like, 50% of the reason I went with own root is because, judging by your profile, you are about 1h away from me 
So I am banking on this being something specific to our environment, whether it’s a disease or too much rain or anything along those lines.
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Maybe less than an hour. 
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Looks like a bacterial (or fungal) disease. The tree behind has the same symptoms.
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That seems to be a common thought with many people here. I would be curious what kind of disease could cause such a drastic appearance without noticeably affecting the health of the tree.
Perhaps you have some burl wood developing at the base. I just read online that cherry trees do often do that.
Burl wood from some trees can be harvested and is quite valuable… but sounds like with cherry it often ends up being hollow, full of ants, and rotting.
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I don’t see anything like a grafting scar healing and it looks like a young tree so I think it’s a natural occurence similar to other trees in the pic.
Dennis
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I would say NOT grafted. Looks like dirt was backfilled higher on the trunk than natural, then removed years later to its original level. ? ?
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Being on a slope, erosion of the soil could theoretically be a factor so I definitely like that theory. However, because I know this site pretty well I can clarify that erosion hasn’t been an issue in this spot and the ground level has been quite stable for at least the last few decades.
I think that’s because there isn’t a good reference for scale in the original picture. Here’s a picture of the rings. It’s not easy to count them because of the chainsaw marks, but it’s over 30 years old.
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I keep wondering if it was covered with soil or something where the other texture was below the soil line and then eroded away. But I think there’d be roots. Maybe the soil was added then removed later.
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I didn’t have time to make the cross section today, but I think once I make it, it will be easy to see from the internal structure if there had ever been roots in that portion or not.
Definitely where soil had once been and now is gone.
Makes me think of borer damage like a lot of wild cherries have around here.
I’ve not seen any bore holes in any of the ones I cut down (including the one pictured).
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Are you going to tell us, grafted or ungrafted?
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I sliced a bit off the side to show what it looks like under the bark. Surprisingly the bark actually isn’t any thicker at the thick base than it is on the narrower part.
And now for the answer!
This is an ungrafted feral tree. Prunus avium is actually somewhat “invasive” in my area and in the spring when they are blooming you will see them all over in the woods. Some of them tend to grow as solitary trees and some seem to make clonal colonies. This particular specimen is part of what appears to be a clonal colony with every trunk producing small, red blushed-yellow cherries (most other trees in the area ripen red). I don’t typically see this thickened base when I come across them, but for this specific colony the thickened base seems to be characteristic. Because there is no sign of this being caused by any disease or fluctuation of soil level (which I can vouch for given that these are at my childhood home), I have to assume this trait must be from a genetic predisposition.
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