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Officials choose White House Christmas tree in Ashe County
Journal photo by Monte Mitchell
White House Chief Usher Stephen Rochon puts the red, white and blue ribbon on the tree that was selected on Ashe County's River Ridge Tree Farms as the official White House Christmas tree.
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Published: October 21, 2008
Creston - The crowd clustered expectantly in the chilly mountain air this morning as a team arrived from Washington to select the official White House Christmas tree.
People rode a hay-filled trailer pulled by a tractor up a steep winding gravel road, past an old weathered barn to a grassy hillside dotted with the tallest trees among the 1 million Fraser firs of River Ridge Tree Farms. They were rewarded with a close-up view of the colored-leaf beauty of The Peak, which rises up on the other side of the main road to 5,159 feet, making it Ashe County's highest mountain.
More than 100 people moved to the side away from the steep drop-off as the White House car drove up into the grass near the tall trees. Stepping out were White House Chief Usher Stephen Rochon, a retired admiral; with Dale Haney, the superintendent of the White House grounds; and Nancy Clarke, the chief floral designer for the White House.
"So what are we doing here today?" Rochon joked with the crowd.
As they started walking toward the trees and the crowd moved with them, 4-year-old Athena Estes told him and everyone else.
"We have a lot of trees for you to look at," said Athena, the granddaughter of Rusty Estes, one of the Christmas tree farm owners. "Let's go, everybody."
The crowd laughed and moved on. The White House team quickly found a nice tree, just the right height, with fragrant braches of perfect symmetry. But Clarke pulled down on the branches and thought they might not be strong enough to handle the weight of some of the 400-plus ornaments.
"This is a beautiful tree, but I think it might be a little soft," she said.
They all walked down a hill, the crowd moving together, then back up.
"How does North Carolina keep growing these perfect trees?" asked Rochon, who was in Ashe County last year to pick the 2007 White House tree.
"That's to keep the White House coming back," said Jessie Davis, a co-owner of River Ridge Tree Farms.
They kept looking.
"This is so critical," Rochon said. "It's President Bush's last Christmas. It's got to be perfect."
Finally, they found just the right tree. It could be trimmed to 18½-feet to fit the Blue Room space. The branches were strong. They tapered nicely to the top.
"We're going to proclaim this the White House Christmas tree," said Rochon, nestling a red, white and blue ribbon in its branches.
"Do you like this one, Athena?" Rochon asked the 4-year-old girl.
"Yep," she said.
"All right, it's a done deal," he said, and people clapped.
The tree was transplanted on this spot in 1985 by Davis and his father-in-law Joe Pennington. It was already five years old at the time.
Pennington died in 2003. His widow, Carol, along with Davis and Rusty Estes, all partners in River Ridge Tree Farms, watched as the White House team moved among the trees Joe Pennington had nurtured for so long.
"This is nothing short of a tribute to Joe," Davis said. "Providing a Christmas tree to the White House would have been the ultimate accomplishment for him."
The tree will be harvested the day after Thanksgiving and taken to Washington, where the partners and their families will present it to Laura Bush.
River Ridge Tree Farms won the right to supply the White House tree by being named 2008 Grand Champion Christmas Tree Growers at the National Christmas Tree Association meeting in Des Moines, Iowa, in August.
It's the second year in a row that an Ashe County tree has been selected for the White House. A tree from Alleghany County was the White House tree in 2005. This is North Carolina's 11th year to supply a White House tree, nearly twice as many times as any other state. (Wisconsin is second with six White House trees.)
"The reason for it is because the tree grows naturally in the mountains of North Carolina, that's the key," said Linda Gragg, the executive director of the N.C. Christmas Tree Association. "Plus, the fact we have growers who love the trees. They want it to be the best."
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