The Wisconsin State Capitol Holiday Tree comes from Rhinelander this year.
The tree was carefully harvested Tuesday morning.
The 32-foot-tall balsam fir had been growing in Marge Van Heuklon’s front yard since 2005, more than a decade before she moved into the home.
When she wanted the tree to come down, Henry Schienebeck reached out to her with the idea of donating it to be the Capitol Holiday Tree.
Schienebeck is with the Great Lakes Timber Professionals Association.
“She was tickled that it might be considered for a Capitol Christmas Tree. Last year, actually, they had a local company come over and trim it up a little bit to make sure that we could get it in because it was much wider than it is and trim that up nice. And here we are,” he said.
At 16-feet wide the tree is pushing the limits for how wide a Capitol Holiday Tree can be.
Each year, the Capitol grounds staff have to take the doors off and build a plywood tunnel to get the tree in the capitol building.
“[They] hook a rope on it. We get about 30 people and through the door it goes,” said Schienebeck. “They do have a winch for a backup in case they get stuck. This one might, but I’ve hauled some big wide trees down there before, and they always managed to get them in.”
This year’s theme for the tree is “175 Years of Wisconsinites”.
Students from across the state make ornaments for the tree each year.
This Friday on WXPR’s We Live Up Here, we’ll introduce you to Marge and share the story behind the tree.
You can listen during Morning Edition and All Things Considered, online at wxpr.org, or wherever you get your podcast.
