Capitol Tree Topples Wrong Way
Residents watching the cutting of a 90-foot spruce selected as the U.S. Capitol’s Christmas tree went scurrying for cover when the falling tree twisted out of control and crashed across a road.
The giant spruce toppled onto a truck-mounted crane that was waiting to haul the tree away Saturday. Ten feet broke off the top of the tree when volunteers tried to move it at the Kootenai National Forest in northwestern Montana.
Afterward, woodcutters felled a nearby tree deemed acceptable by the Capitol’s landscape architect when he visited the forest in June.
“We’d like to say it went perfect the first time, but it didn’t,” said Bill Crismore of Libby, who had been given the honor of cutting the tree.
Only about 61 feet of the tree can be shipped to Washington because that is the length of the enclosed rail car that will carry it. The 41-year-old spruce will be erected on the west front lawn of the Capitol.
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