As early voters in the Southeast Alaska community of Wrangell helped choose Alaska’s next U.S. representative, local workers were preparing to send a Sitka spruce to the nation’s Capitol.
In the run-up to the Oct. 26 Harvest Festival celebrating this year’s chosen U.S. Capitol Christmas Tree, everyone was busy inside Wrangell’s state Department of Transportation warehouse, with sounds of a shop vacuum and constant chatter. It was almost like Santa’s workshop — but instead of toys, people tended to a very large tree.
Workers wore hard hats and some people wrapped up the tree, which was harvested from Alaska’s Tongass National Forest, securing it before it headed to Washington, D.C. But it couldn’t leave without a final farewell and blessing in Wrangell.
“It smells like Christmas,” said Chugach National Forest Service employee Brandon Raile, one of the leads for this year’s Capitol Christmas Tree project. “It smells like the only thing missing is the gingerbread cookies. That smell that reminds you of what it’s like to be a little kid at Christmas.”
The tree laid on an 85-foot custom-built trailer that gets used every year to transport each Capitol Christmas Tree.
Wooden walls about six to seven feet tall were lined up against the warehouse. They enclose the tree on its journey across the Lower 48.
‘At night when it’s rolling down the road…’
Raile said Plexiglas will protect the upper half of the tree that lays at the last 20 feet of the trailer. Lights and some of the 14,000 Alaskan made ornaments will decorate that part of the tree.
“At night when it’s rolling down the road, you’ll be able to look in and see the decorated Christmas tree,” he said.
But the 74-foot tree from Zarembo Island, about 20 miles west of Wrangell, would die before the holidays without water.
High school tech club created a misting system to keep tree alive
Because of this and a new project by Wrangell’s High School tech club, T3 Alliance, excavators dug out the tree.
“We hook a large crane to the top of the tree and we began to excavate the root system,” Tom Roland, one of the 2024 Capitol Christmas Tree team leads, said. “Once the root system was coming loose, we used an excavator in the crane to lift it out of the ground; then we turned it horizontally and we started getting it down on the trailer. It’s a pretty long process. Took a full day to get it positioned on the trailer.”
And then it took another full day to tie the branches down secure enough so they can transport it. But the crew lucked out that weekend – the weather was mostly sunny, which is rare for a Southeast Alaska fall.
‘Why can’t we transplant this tree?’
“One of the questions that we’ve received many times is, ‘Why can’t we transplant this tree?’ And that’s because we had to take the anchor roots out to fit it on the truck,” Roland said. “So while we did get the vast majority of the fine root mass, we weren’t able to save the anchor roots, making this tree impossible to transplant.”
To keep the tree alive for as long as possible, the local high school tech club created a watering system for the tree during transport.
Misters, which look like small polyvinyl chloride or PVC pipes, are set up as a large rectangular cube that encloses the root wad. There’s about 20 mister nozzles on the whole contraption. When turned on, a battery powers the pump to cycle water through the system.
Back in the garage, the workers vacuumed out water from the root area. Then, they reintroduced the 200 gallons of water. Basically a tray on the bottom collects the water as it drips off of the root wad, and then it recycles back through the system with pumps.
“This is just so cool to me,” Raile said. “The local school kids were able to have their print on the U.S. Capitol Christmas Tree that’s going to travel the entire country. That’s just so exciting.”
Each side of the truck’s designs represent the Tongass and Chugach National Forests
Raile said the Kenworth truck that will haul the Capitol Christmas Tree is a new vehicle donated by the company each year. Each truck has its own design, like this one that represents the Tongass and Chugach National Forests – one side for each forest. The truck’s blue color is intentional as well because it matches the Alaska flag.
“Come around to the scenes,” Raile said. “These are super exciting because the longer you look at it, the more you see. So all of our iconic wildlife is hidden throughout the scenes.”
The wildlife that’s hidden includes a salmon, fox, eagle, a bear and wolves. But that’s just a few. There’s also formline art on the truck, designed by Wrangellite Mike Aak’wtaatseen Hoyt. It represents the Eagle and the Raven clans, symbolizing unity and balance.
‘…it’s just covered with signatures from across the country.’
The truck will make its way across the Lower 48 on a whistle-stop tour, visiting 11 other communities. Raile said everybody will have the opportunity to sign the giant banner on the truck.”
“By the time this thing gets to D.C., it’s just covered with signatures from all across the country,” he said. “It’s really cool to see.”
After about three days of wrapping the tree and getting it ready for its long trek, many Wrangellites celebrated it at the Harvest Festival at The Nolan Center.
“I’m gonna go out and touch the truck, because I want to touch the truck before it leaves,” Don McConachie said.
‘I see a small American town getting together…’
Not everyone here is from Wrangell though.
“I see a small American town getting together, enjoying the festivities of Halloween and Christmas and local traditions all together in one,” said Nevada resident Duncan Leao. He came out to help with the tree for the last two weeks.
When Wrangell Cooperative Association Tribal President Ed Rilatos said it was time to bless the tree, people brought out a large bear skin that lies between the dancers and everyone else — including the tree outside.
“It’s been a hard job, hard work to get this done,” he said. “A lot of people put a lot of time in, but we need to bless the tree. It came from our land, and we have our dancers here, and I hope you enjoy our ceremony as we send our mighty spruce tree off to Washington, D.C. It’s called the People’s Tree, but when it’s set right there (in front of The Nolan Center), it’s a Wrangell tree right now.”
Tribal Administrator Esther Aaltséen Reese spoke to the large crowd. She said this tree is part of their culture, which represents balance.
“We are so honored that this tree is going to Washington, D.C. This tree is literally our connection to our ancestors,” she said. “It sheltered our ancestors, and now we are proud to gift it to Washington, D.C. for their celebration.”
Soon after the tribal members spoke, a drum could be heard.
Wrangell Cooperative Association tribal members bless the tree
The tribe then began to sing and dance, starting with the Welcome Song to welcome the tree and the people.
After the blessing, Wrangell’s city officials spoke to the crowd, including Borough Manager Mason Villarma. He thanked U.S. Sen. Lisa Murkowski for her help during Wrangell’s deadly landslide last year.
“About a year ago, a really bad, bad thing happened here in Wrangell and a lot of us went over to D.C. to ask for some help through Lisa,” he said. “She was there and she had mentioned that the sun’s going to come up tomorrow. I know it’s not out today, but it did come up tomorrow, and we really have rebuilt ourselves. And that’s just characteristic of our community.”
Whistle-stop tour brings all people together
The tree’s official photographer and storyteller, James Edward Mills from Wisconsin, travels with the tree to document its tour. He said he’s had the role for the last 10 years.
“It’s perhaps the greatest honor of my life,” he said. “I’ve been doing this since 2015. The very first tree I did came from Alaska, and so this is kind of coming full circle on a fabulous journey that has taken me to 10 regions in the U.S. Forest Service.”
He said tree transporters typically go to very small towns and rural communities, where everyone comes out.
“It turns into just a fabulous celebration of cultural and social unity,” Mills said. “Everyone seems to put their political affiliations aside. It’s very non-partisan and it doesn’t even have much of a religious proclivity, which is great.”
As a band started to play. Wrangellite Alice Rooney also mentioned how non-partisan the event was, especially with the nation’s political polarization.
“We’re all just so excited about the tree coming to the Capitol,” she said. “Our Capitol is not a red Capitol, not blue, it’s just our Capitol. And I’m really excited.”
The day ended shortly after. All that was left was putting the tree on a barge to make its way south to Ketchikan and then Washington, D.C.
The Forest Service invites Alaskans to follow the tree’s journey on its website.
