No doubt there was a sense of seasonal anticipation in Washington, D.C. as President Lyndon B. Johnson prepared to light the National Christmas Tree at 6:40 p.m. Dec. 18, 1964.
For Boy Scout Troop 100 of Warrensburg and a handful of local government officials present for the ceremony on the White House Ellipse, and for thousands of Warren County residents paying attention from afar, it was a distinct historic moment.
For Warren County was “Home of the National Christmas Tree,” the native soil where the estimated 80-year-old, 72-foot, 12-ton white spruce grew up.
It measured 36 feet in circumference and had a 33-inch thick stump.
Other National Christmas Trees through the years could boast of largeness, but none other could boast of such a birthplace.
“There has never been a tree-lighting ceremony like tonight’s will be,” The Post-Star editorialized. “This tree came from Warren County, from Chestertown, from Landon Hill!”
It was a gift from the Adirondacks to the nation that was decorated with 5,000 red and white light bulbs for all to see.
“A fine representative of the Adirondack forests stands on the White House lawn this Christmastide,” The Post-Star touted.
Transportation wise it was about a two-day journey via Fort Edward Express tractor trailer from Chestertown to Washington, with about an hour stop early on at downtown Glens Falls, where officer Stanley Wood and his Glens Falls Police Department colleagues closely guarded as curiosity seekers gathered around to get a glimpse of the celebrity spruce, temporarily on display at Monument Square.
Planning wise it was a much longer journey that started three years earlier when Robert Hall, a newspaper publisher from Warrensburg, urged the Adirondack Lumberman’s Association to start a campaign to provide a National Christmas Tree from the Adirondacks.
Forester Douglas Luke of Glens Falls, woods manager for West Virginia Pulp and Paper Co., identified the tree at Landon Hill forest, between Chestertown and Pottersville in northern Warren County.
In mid-November 1964, Rudolph R. Bartel, assistant regional manager for the National Park Service, inspected the tree and certified it was fit for the limelight.
“This tree is a magnificent specimen, and I’m especially pleased with its health and the care it has received,” he said.
Warren County Board of Supervisors proclaimed the day after Thanksgiving as “National Christmas Tree Day” in Warren County, coinciding with a tree-cutting ceremony at Landon Hill at which state Assemblyman Richard Bartlett, R-Glens Falls, presided.
It was described as a “once-in-a-lifetime thrill.”
Little did anyone at the time imagine that Warren County would send a second National Christmas Tree to Washington in 1969, this time a spruce from Crandall Park in Glens Falls.
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Sources: The Post-Star, Nov. 25, 27, 28, Dec. 18,23, 24, 1964; The Glens Falls Times, Nov. 28, Dec. 18, 1964; Lake George Mirror, Aug. 18, 1964; Essex County Republican, Nov. 20, 1964, The Tower, January 1965.
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Thanks to The Historical Society of the Town of Chester for providing the photographs for this story. If you’d like to see more, they have an excellent display at The Town of Chester Museum of Local History (including a section of the stump!). Their Winter hours are Wednesdays from 10am-2pm.
Maury Thompson was a reporter for The Post-Star for 21 years before he retired in 2017. He now is a freelance writer and documentary film producer specializing in regional history. Thompson is collaborating with Snarky Aardvark Films to produce a documentary about Charles Evans Hughes and the Adirondacks, which is expected to release in 2020. See the trailer here.