Virginia's tree on parade

Monday afternoon, a Christmas tree with rock star appeal arrived at Crab Orchard Museum in Tazewell County. The 67-foot red spruce came with an entourage: 18 men and women, most employees of the Virginia Department of Forestry, whose job is to care for and speak for the tree.

It hails from Highland County, Va., they said, a place of ridges and valleys like those of Tazewell County. The tree lay prone, bound with yellow straps, on a flatbed truck that looked like a modern covered wagon. Wrapped around the truck’s protecting ribs was clear plastic instead of dusty canvas.

Fans gathered on the museum’s front lawn to catch a glimpse of the still form. School children sang, paying tribute to the tree that will stand on the grounds of the nation’s Capitol during the 2004 holiday season.

Senior citizens looked on from benches in the sun. Politicians said a few words and shook hands with everyone. The minister prayed. In the crowd were men and women dressed in pioneer clothes, for Tazewell County was once the edge of the frontier. The way west passed through the valley.

A Veteran of Foreign Wars trumpeter played “Taps.” The melancholic notes contrasted sharply with the picture-postcard backdrop: a bowl-shaped valley, its still-green, bluegrass fields dotted with cows, its hills wrinkled with their trails, while historic Pisgah United Methodist Church’s steeple topped with a white cross rose above the tree in its greenhouse on the truck bed.

“Tazewell is our 21st stop,” Beth Merz, a United States Department of Agriculture Forestry Service representative, told the crowd. At every stop, the tour team is greeted with ceremonial traditions indigenous to that locale. A Tazewell-like drama plays out for them over and over, from the shore, to the piedmont, to the plateau, mountains and valleys.

Why does the tree’s appearance evoke pageantry wherever it goes? According to Merz, the tree is the first one from Virginia to become the nation’s holiday tree.

As Virginia’s ambassador, the spruce represents all the state’s villages, towns and cities. At each of the tour’s 33 stops, someone presents the team with an ornament that symbolizes that place’s character, culture, and heritage. The tree will take with it to Washington a piece of each community to show to the rest of the world.

Alex Williamson, who has spent 30 years with the Virginia Department of Forestry, presided over the table where the ornaments were displayed. He knows where each came from. “This one is from Wise County,” he said, lifting a globe-sized ornament from a cardboard box. The artist’s vision of her county is breathtaking. Detailed images reflect her world: there’s a coal cart, High Knob, green mountains and blue sky. “She cried when she gave it to us,” Williamson said. “It will hang on the tree.”

The ones not selected will be useful, too. “We will take them to places like nursing homes and schools,” he said. Every ornament will fulfill the message of the carol that plays wherever the tree goes: That song is “O Christmas Tree,” which speaks of spreading “hope and gladness far and wide.”

And the Forestry Service has added state pride. On the sides of the protective plastic are the words, “From Virginia, the Birthplace of Presidents” -- the tree is the state’s gift to the nation. Merz proves the tree is larger than life when she gives its vital statistics. It’s 79 years old, weighs 7,500 pounds, was 82 feet tall, and after it was cut had to be airlifted off the mountain.

“We left Monterey, Va., last Saturday with it,” Williamson said. The convoy will arrive at the Capitol on Nov. 29. “It will take 10 days to set up the tree and put on its 10,000 lights and 5000 ornaments, Merz said.

On Dec. 9, the Speaker of the House of Representative will flip the switch that lights the tree. “Tazewell County will be represented at the lighting ceremony,” said Terry Mullins, local historian and teacher. “A group from Mountain Mission School has been invited to sing.”

“At the end of the holiday season, workers will grind the spruce into mulch,” Williamson said, “and spread it among the trees and plants on the Capitol grounds.

Before that happens, he and his team have more stops to make. “It’s exciting to visit communities around the state,” he said. “Wherever we go, people are genuinely grateful and appreciative.” They are also eager to peep through the plastic to see the state’s newest star.