Magazine Crowned Eureka Christmas Tree Capital
By Mike Cuffe
Colliers Magazine named Eureka, Montana, the Christmas Tree Capital of the World with photos and a big spread inside that popular national news-feature magazine in December,1948.
For decades, signs along US Highway 93 alerted travelers of Eureka’s title, and references to the title came in the Thirties.
My older sister Edna McKenzie Gwynn was one of the “pretty high school girls” lined up for the magazine photo shoot of that huge community Christmas tree on main street. Magazine photographers came to town in 1947 and the article ran in 1948. My brother Tommy was in the photo of kids crowded around the tree as were a couple old-timers I break bread with each week at Tobacco Senior Citizens Center. A copy of the Colliers photo hangs on the wall of my home, because it gave our little town fame.
Christmas tree harvesting began in the late 1920s, and it was an economic savior for many towns in northwest Montana. My mother and her first husband were among the earliest to begin harvesting Christmas trees, and in the 1970’s Mom added to her Social Security income as a tree grader in the waning years of the annual fall harvest.
I began dragging Christmas trees as a youngster in the 1950s, and in the 1960’s I cut, hauled, tied, loaded and retailed trees for my sister and her husband, Bill Gwynn. I owned the last commercial Christmas tree business in nearby Libby from 1972-1986. We cut and shipped five semi-loads per year. Two commercial drivers brought refrigerated vans from Alaska each Thanksgiving, a couple semis were sent to Sioux City, Iowa, and Sioux Falls, South Dakota, and another annually hauled a load to Utah. Some trucks went to Texas and Mexico.
In the good old days, a good cutter could make big money during tree season, and so could the men and women who tied the trees into bails. Many farmers, ranchers and woodsmen provided trucks to move trees from the woods to local commercial yards, and then to the rail sidings in advance of shipment to distant markets.
During the harvest, Dewey Avenue in Eureka was clogged with pickup trucks and trucks laden with fresh cut Douglas fir, and the aroma of needles and sap resin permeated clothes. Spirits were always bright. The community was proud and flush with cash for the holidays.
Christmas tree jobs were abundant in the Tobacco Valley from October to December. At the end of the harvest, many loaded pickups, trailers and flatbed trucks left home for a retail yard in a warmer place like California or Las Vegas, although some did well in Wyoming and Washington, and I did well in Great Falls.
Christmas tree harvesting is detailed in a book and a booklet by author and historian Darris Flanagan. He grew up in a large farm family which was land rich and cash starved. Like many others, Christmas trees provided cash for each winter, year in and year out.
Flanagan’s books are loaded with fascinating details, including how many trees were shipped each year. He notes that 1.2 million were shipped from Montana in 1936 with two thirds from Eureka, and 3,000,000 went out in 1941, again with two thirds from Eureka. He cites railroad records of 300 boxcars of trees headed out by rail in one year, and that is a lot of pickup loads and manhours. Many women also cut, tied and hauled trees.
Flanagan notes that references of Eureka holding the “Capital” title began in the Thirties, and he lists a reference from a Spokane newspaper. He also rightfully said that the title should be shared with nearby smaller communities such as Rexford, Fortine, Trego and Stryker.
Eventually the market for wild grown Douglas fir was replaced by farm cultured and shaped Scotch pine, plastic and metal trees, even as new Forest Service environmental standards reduced Christmas tree stumpage sales. Today, many Eureka locals still cut fir boughs and make wreaths to be shipped out by the truckload. MSN
Flanagan’s books can be ordered at PO Box 122, Fortine, Montana, 59918. They are also available at many stores and Tobacco Valley Historical Village, 4 Dewey Avenue, Eureka, Montana. Or call 406-297-7654
