Check out U.S. Capitol Christmas tree from New Mexico

Associated Press | Las Cruces Sun-News

RED RIVER - A 60-foot blue spruce was cut down Wednesday during a ceremony in a forested canyon in northern New Mexico, starting a two-and-a-half-week journey that will take it to the U.S. Capitol to be this year’s Christmas tree.

A sawyer used a chain saw to sever the trunk, which one of two cranes then jerked several feet up in the air. Then both cranes swung the tree over to a flatbed trailer at the Carson National Forest site.

The tree will tour New Mexico before leaving on a trip scheduled to conclude Nov. 24 at Joint Base Andrews outside Washington.

According to the project website, stops are scheduled in Truth or Consequences, Capitan, Alamogordo and El Paso.

Each year a national forest is selected to share a tree with the nation.

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