RED RIVER, N.M. (AP) A 60-foot (18-meter) blue spruce was cut down Wednesday during a ceremony in a forested canyon in northern New Mexico, starting a 2.5 -week journey that will take it to the U.S. Capitol to be this year's national 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 before leaving on a trip scheduled to conclude Nov. 24 at Joint Base Andrews outside Washington.
Along the way, the tree will make a number of stops so Americans can catch a glimpse of it before it's installed on the Capitol grounds. Stop #25, according to the project website, will be in Lawrenceville, Georgia. The tree - on its flatbed truck - will be on display from 6 to 7 p.m. on Nov. 20, 2019 outside Bass Pro Shops at 5900 Sugarloaf Parkway.
Stops are also scheduled in Texas, Louisiana, Tennessee and Virginia.
North Georgians may remember The Capitol Christmas Tree in 2010. While the tree itself was from Wyoming, Jeff Underwood Trucking of Dahlonega hauled the tree across the country, making a stop in Dahlonega along the way.
Each year a national forest is selected to share a tree with the nation.
AccessWDUN contributed to this article.
http://accesswdun.com/article/2019/11/848315/new-mexico-spruce-begins-journey-to-be-2019-christmas-tree-n-ga-on-the-route-to-dc