Oregon fills a tall order with Christmas tree

There’s only one word to describe the Douglas fir now on its way from Oregon to be a Christmas tree in California: colossal.

It took three people using chain saws to cut down the 125-foot tree and a giant crane to lift it off the ground and place it on an extended flatbed tractor truck.

“With a tree this big, you want to harvest it in a way that will bring it down to the ground safely and gently,” said Ed Hallett, co-owner of Oregon Evergreen Inc. and Willamette Evergreen Tree Farm in Salem.

“Neighbors in the area came out to watch,” Hallett said. “It was quite something to see.”

The 25,000-pound tree rolled out of the Canby area, where Hallett found it, on the 18-wheeler Wednesday morning. It headed down Interstate 5 on a two-day journey to Six Flags Discovery Kingdom in Vallejo, Calif., in the San Francisco Bay area.

With a trunk diameter of 4 feet and branches that span 55 feet, the tree is expected to arrive at the theme park late today.

It will be ceremoniously airlifted into the park by a BV234 Chinook helicopter piloted by Columbia Helicopters in Portland. The Chinook is the biggest and heaviest-lifting helicopter in the nation.

“We couldn’t get it in the park, otherwise,” said Nancy Chan, a Six Flags spokeswoman.

This is the first time Six Flags officials have purchased a Christmas tree from Oregon. It will be lit Nov. 23, Chan said. She would not say what the gigantic tree cost or the price tag to transport it.

During its 590-mile trip to the Bay area, Oregon’s towering tree likely will cross paths with a 75-foot fir tree being transported from the Klamath National Forest in Yreka, Calif.

That tree is expected to arrive at the Woodburn Company Stores between 6 and 8 this morning, outlet mall officials said.

The trip from Canby to Vallejo, Calif., is 591 miles, while the trip from Yreka to Woodburn is 295 miles.

If Six Flags had purchased its tree from Yreka and Woodburn Company stores had bought its from Canby, the companies could have saved themselves a transporting distance of about 300 miles each.