In the Garden 12-20-09

LeeAnn Barton Special to the NewsPress

A cute movie on television tells a story of The National Tree. The movie is set in winter, when a teenage boy and his father dig and transport a Sitka spruce (planted when the boy was born) to Washington, D.C., to become our nation’s Christmas tree.

Each year, much fluff and ceremony really does surround the lighting of a large, living Colorado blue spruce located south of the White House in Washington. There is, however, another tree that has been known as the nation’s Christmas tree since the 1920s.

In 1924, R.J. Singer, president of the Chamber of Commerce in Sanger, Calif., was hiking through a grove of trees in what was then known as General Grant National Park. Some accounts say the hiker was Charles Lee, secretary of the Chamber of Commerce. Either way, the hiker stopped to look in awe at an extremely large Sequoiadendron. Legend claims a young girl appeared and said, “What a lovely Christmas tree that would be.” Then the girl disappeared into the redwood grove.

The following year, Senior and Lee, accompanied by friends made the trek to the tree, placed flowers at the base and there held a Christmas service.

President Calvin Coolidge received a letter from Lee, describing the majesty of the tree and the little girl’s words. On April 28, 1926, the General Grant Tree was officially dedicated as the nation’s Christmas tree by the Department of the Interior. Thirty years later on March 29, 1956, Congress declared the tree a national shrine. It is the only living object to be so designated.

On Nov. 11, 1956, Fleet Admiral Chester Nimitz, personally representing President Eisenhower, held a special ceremony officially dedicating the General Grant Tree as a perpetual shrine to our nation’s war dead.

Every year since 1925, Christmas services have been held at the base of General Grant, bringing visitors from near and far. The trek is not as strenuous as it once was. Sanger’s Chamber of Commerce has set aside the second Sunday each December to embrace their little piece of history. The pilgrimage may now be traveled by bus excursion (that includes a meal).

General Grant, our nation’s Christmas tree, is worthy of the title. Residing in Grants Grove of Kings Canyon National Park, General Grant is the second largest tree in the world, standing 267 feet tall with a circumference of 107 feet. Surviving flood, fire and storms, this national treasure is estimated to be near 2,000 years old. That alone seems to me to be a miracle ... a Christmas miracle.

LeeAnn Barton can be e-mailed at .

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