As MySean & I headed back up North I saw that Carrie's tree had been decorated between our trip down and back. It caused me to smile as I knew well the history of Carrie's tree. How could one live in NorCal and not know! Carrie's tree is much more than an ol Osage orange beside I5...
Here is the story by Dottie Smith:
"You've probably driven by this Christmas tree just north of Red Bluff
on Interstate 5 and wondered about it. I did, and I set out on a search
to find why that Charlie Brown kind of tree was always decorated at
Christmas time and who was doing it. It's known as Carrie’s Christmas
tree and its located just before the roadside rest area. It stands there
all by itself all decked out with bright-colored Christmas tree
decorations. The story of that tree is interesting enough to be told. Years ago in the early 1960s when major reconstruction work
began to get underway on that section of the highway, Cottonwood
resident and lover of trees Carrie Bogue asked the road officials if she
could dig up the tree and move it out of harm’s way. It was an Osage
orange and pretty rare in Northern California. She was denied her simple
request. Work on the highway continued and somehow her tree managed to
remain standing through the work. However, a few years later, it died.
And then, in 1966, a few years after the tree died, Carrie died. She was
93 years old.
Carrie had many friends. Among them were Ruth and
Cary Chadwick of Anderson who had been friends of Carrie’s for at least
40 years. They knew the story of Carrie and her tree, and one day as
they were driving by the “dead” tree, they noticed it had miraculously
come back to life! And of course they thought it was Carrie, now in the
form of a tree. The Chadwick’s had known Carrie well. Carrie had told
them, and others, that if she could come back to life after death, she
wanted to come back as a tree. And so, according to the Chadwick’s, and
to everyone else who knew Carrie well, there she was, alive again, this
time as a tree, just as she wished. That Christmas season, in 1967, the
Chadwick’s decorated Carrie’s tree. They covered the tree with bright
garlands, tinsels and bows for everyone to see as they passed by on the
highway that had now become a freeway.
Over the years, the tree
grew larger and taller making it more difficult for the Chadwick’s to
decorate. They continued decorating her tree for at least twenty more
years until their old ages and poor health began getting in the way. In
approximately 1990, their friends Dale and Larry McClure, also of
Cottonwood, began helping them out. A few years later, the McClure’s
became the lone decorators of Carrie’s tree. For two years the tree
stood undecorated until the Hoofard and Lopez families decided to take
over. For years they decorated it without anyone knowing they were the
decorators. Until a family friend drove by and spotted them. They
decided it was time to let everyone know who they were. On the same day
every year this thoughtful family meets at the tree to bring happiness
to everyone that travels I-5. They love hearing people honk and wave
from both directions and they love hearing how much joy it brings to
people. They said they will continue the tradition until it’s time for
the next generation to take over. They have added lights to the tree and
have also placed a sign big enough to easily read from the freeway that
proclaims it as “Carrie’s Tree”."
