Questa Mayor and Taos County Commission Chairman Mark Gallegos gives a thumbs up Wednesday while cutting a 60-foot, 68-year-old blue spruce in the Questa Ranger District of the Carson National Forest. The tree is eventually headed to Washington, D.C., where it will serve as the nation’s Christmas tree. Morgan Timms/The Taos News
Questa Mayor and Taos County Commission Chairman Mark Gallegos gives a thumbs up Wednesday while cutting a 60-foot, 68-year-old blue spruce in the Questa Ranger District of the Carson National Forest. The tree is eventually headed to Washington, D.C., where it will serve as the nation’s Christmas tree. Morgan Timms/The Taos News
RED RIVER — A 60-foot blue spruce was cut down Wednesday during a ceremony in a forested canyon in Northern New Mexico, starting a 2½ -week journey that will take it to the U.S. Capitol to be this year’s Christmas tree.
A sawyer used a chain saw to sever the trunk, which one of two cranes then jerked several feet up in the air. Then both cranes swung the tree over to a flatbed trailer at the Carson National Forest site.
The tree will tour New Mexico, including a stop in Santa Fe on Nov. 13, before leaving on a trip scheduled to conclude Nov. 24 at Joint Base Andrews outside Washington.
According to the project website, stops are scheduled in Texas, Louisiana, Georgia, Tennessee and Virginia.
The semi-trailer truck carrying the U.S. Christmas tree clears a tight corner Wednesday en route to a stop in Red River. Morgan Timms/The Taos News
Each year a national forest is selected to share a tree with the nation.
