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The country is swamped by devastation from Hurricane Sandy and the storm of the 2012 election, but it’s still beginning to look a lot like Christmas. And who’s the Santa hauling the 2012 U.S. Capitol Christmas Tree — — “America’s gift to the nation” — to Washington, D.C.? Former Senator Ben Nighthorse Campbell.
The tree that will grace the west lawn of the U.S. Capitol, a 73-foot Engelmann Spruce currently growing in the White River National Forest, will be harvested today and then taken to Meeker, forty miles away, for a holiday celebration. Tomorrow, it will be wrapped, loaded, and head out on a 28-city tour, with several stops in Colorado before the tree finally reaches the nation’s capitol on November 26.
And Nighthorse Campbell, who was usually on a motorcycle when he amused D.C. with his antics, will be behind the wheel of the custom-decorated Mack Pinnacle model truck crossing the country.
Denverites will get a chance to see this spectacle from 2 to 5 p.m. Sunday, November 11 at the Midtown development, 67th Avenue and Pecos Street. (Find the full schedule here)
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Eager for another early sign that Christmas is around the corner? Check out this sight snapped from the South Platte River Bike Path on Halloween:
Be afraid. Be very afraid.
Learn more about Ben Nighthorse Campbell in our 1996 cover story “Athlete, Artist, Indian Chief.”
