Country celebrates Capitol Christmas tree tour: Stops at Capitan, Mescalero and Alamogordo

As "The People's Tree" travels from New Mexico to Washington, D.C., Erica Enjady, a member of the Mescalero Apache Tribe and forestry and fuels program manager on the Carson National Forest, said the proudest moment of the journey will be the arrival of the Capitol Christmas Tree at her home reservation Friday.  

Calling Monday from Questa, the first stop on the tree's tour before landing in Washington, D.C. Nov. 25, said she was watching the arrival of a stream of guests to the Alta Vista Elementary School.

Each stop will average from 45 minutes to an hour, she said. The tree should arrive at 10 a.m., Friday (Nov. 15) at the Mescalero Community Center and administrative offices. 

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"I've been with this project all year long. I was part of the team that helped identify the candidate trees," Enjady said. "It's been a really exciting adventure. I was there on the day it was cut. This project is coordinated with the Architect of the Capitol and they gave us the criteria for the tree. We nominated some candidate trees and they sent an employee over in June. We visited all the trees with them and the department made the selection."

The Blue Spruce chosen is 60 feet tall and 68 years old.

"The most important criteria was that the tree be a typical pyramid conical shape with a good view 360 degrees around, because it will stand on the west lawn of the capitol and will be viewed from all sides," she said.

Each whistle stop is organized by a local designee or organization, and potentially could differ greatly from the next.

"Over the course of the next two weeks, it will be exciting to see how each town and city celebrates the tree," she said. "We're calling it a sunrise stop at 8 a.m., in Capitan Friday, where we also will be celebrating Smokey Bear's 75th birthday, recognizing him as a national icon and celebrating that milestone. Then we will be making our way to Mescalero.

"I am especially excited and looking forward to going home to Mescalero and being part of the celebration on Friday."

Each year, the U.S. Forest Service provides the Capitol Christmas tree. Last year, it came from the Willamette National Forest in Oregon. This year, the honor was transferred to the Carson and announced in February, she said. The tree was found in the Questa Ranger District of the Carson National Forest in July.

The selected tree is traveling on a 104 feet long tractor trailer of Wilbanks Trucking based in Artesia. It will be displayed on the west lawn of the U.S. Capitol Building at a public tree-lighting ceremony in early December.

Enjady's role

Although a tribal member, Enjady, 42, was born and raised in Albuquerque. She returned to the reservation in 2000 to work for the Bureau of Indian Affairs Forest Management Program. She became the forest manager in 2010, the first tribal member to fill that position.

She left the BIA and joined the Forest Service in 2016 as forestry program manager.

"I was just at that point in my career that I wanted to do something different and expand my horizons," she said. "It's really been a great adventure. Northern New Mexico is beautiful and has wonderful people. The Forest Service is a great agency to work with."

Married to Pascal Enjady, Erica Enjady faced the prospect of separate households when she joined the Carson National Forest, because her husband just had been elected to the Mescalero tribal council. But they are making it work, she said. Her husband and his father, well-known artist Oliver Enjady, designed one of the ornaments that will hang from the tree and will be seen at every stop on the whistle tour through a glass exposure.

History of capital tree tradition

The tradition of the Capitol Christmas Tree, or "The People’s Tree," began in 1964, when Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives John W. McCormack (D-MA) placed a live Christmas tree on the Capitol lawn. This tree lived three years before succumbing to wind and root damage.

In 1970, the Capitol Architect asked the U.S. Forest Service to provide a Christmas tree. Since then, a different national forest has been chosen each year to provide the tree. The national forest also works with state forests to provide companion trees that are smaller Christmas trees for offices in Washington, D.C.

The Carson National Forest, in partnership with the New Mexico Tourism Department and nonprofit organization Choose Outdoors, mapped out a route cross-country involving more than 25 communities along the way.

On the road to Washington:Artesia trucking company delivers Christmas tree to the U.S. Capitol

Trees and ornaments

"As part of the Capitol Christmas Tree project, we provide companion trees to legislative and executive offices in D.C.," Enjady said. "We are providing 50, and some will go to congressional offices, forest service offices, other Department of Agriculture)  and (Department of Interior) offices."

All of the smaller trees and the capitol tree will be decorated with the creations produced from an ornament-making project throughout the state, Enjady said. Schools, civic groups, artists and others participated, she said.

"It was amazing the support New Mexicans have given to the tree so far and the excitement has been a blessing for me to witness," she said. "We've had beautiful ornaments crated by local artists and a lot of creative ornaments by school children. It's been heartwarming to see the effort the public has put forth to providing those ornaments."

The tour

Members of Choose Outdoors and part of the Carson team identified the route to take across the county and areas for stops. The theme for the tour project is called "Delivering Enchantment," Enjady said.

"We've taken the approach that this tree is a gift from New Mexico to the nation's capitol," she said. "We wanted to showcase the tree to New Mexicans especially, so we have several stops in New Mexico before we exit the state."

The route is from northern New Mexico to southern New Mexico, then through the southern United States, including Texas, Louisiana, Alabama and Georgia, before turning north into Virginia and Washington, D.C.

"The southern route allows a part of the country to experience the forest service and the Capitol Christmas tree, and to share this New Mexico experience with us," she said.

The tour in New Mexico and west Texas

Monday, the stop included Alta Vista Elementary and Intermediate School in Questa;  Eagle Nest Town Hall; the Veteran’s Memorial in Angel Fire; and Taos Civic Plaza.

Tuesday, the first stop is 8 a.m., at Taos Pueblo,120 Veterans Highway in Taos; 1:30 p.m. at Chama Town Hall, 2994 4th Street in Chama; and 3:30 p.m., U.S. Highway 64 & Jicarilla Blvd in Dulce.

Wednesday, at 8 a.m. at Shiprock High School, US..-64 in Shiprock; 10 a.m. at Bloomfield Elementary School, 200 W Sycamore Ave. in Bloomfield; 1:30 p.m., St. Francis Assisi Park, 31-51 State Highway 126 in Cuba; and 5 p.m. in Santa Fe Place Mall, where 155 guests are expected.

Thursday, stops are scheduled at 10:30 a.m., at Civic Plaza, 401 2nd St. NW in Albuquerque; and 4 p.m., Gila National Forest,1804 North Date St. in Truth or Consequences.

Friday, the tree will hit Capitan, Mescalero, Alamogordo and El Paso, Texas.

• 8 a.m., Smokey Bear Historic Park, 118 West Smokey Bear Boulevard in Capitan
• 10 a.m., Mescalero Community Center & Tribal Offices,101 Central Mescalero Avenue in Mescalero,
• 12:30 p.m., Otero County Fairgrounds, 401 Fairgrounds Road in Alamogordo
• 5:30 p.m., El Paso Zoo in El Paso, Texas

From there, Enjady will stay with the tree until Saturday, when it stops at The Alamo in San Antonio, Texas. She will head back home while the tree continues its journey. A crew will stay with the tree the entire way through Nov. 25, she said.

"To keep the tree fresh, we have it in a water bag that is especially for this project and we make sure to keep it filled and tree watered," Enjady said.

"It really is an opportunity not only to celebrate the coming holiday but to celebrate New Mexico and all we have to offer with our public land and our cultures," she said. "It's exciting.

"It's been an honor and privilege to be part of something so spectacular and to make the journey with a wonderful group of folks from the Carson National Forest.

To follow the journey of the Capitol Christmas tree, check capitoltreetracker.com.

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Reporter Dianne Stallings can be contacted at dstallings@ruidosonews.com.