This tree doesn't retain clarity of initials the way a beech tree does. Perhaps it looked enough like a beech tree when it was young. My best guess is that it's a tulip tree (sometimes called "yellow poplar"). Someone described the young bark of the tulip tree as looking like cantaloupe.

Although this tree does not have the characteristic tulip-shaped samara-clusters that other tulip trees have in winter, that may be because this one is too young; tulip trees apparently do not flower until they grown tall into the clear light of the upper canopy. In this location (near the stream with slopes on either side), that may take quite a while.