As a tiny seedling began sprouting in the forest along Mount Rose Highway west of Reno, the Vietnam War was ending under President Gerald Ford, the price of gas was 53 cents per gallon and the Kool-Aid man made his first television commercial appearance.

Today, 50 years later, that seedling has grown into Silver Belle, a 53-foot-tall red fir from the Carson Ranger District and the first Capitol Christmas tree to be harvested from Nevada.

Silver Belle will be on display on the West Lawn of the Capitol through the holiday season, with an official lighting ceremony Dec. 2.

The U.S. Forest Service has provided a Christmas tree for display at the Capitol since 1970, but no tree has ever been harvested from the Humboldt-Toiyabe National Forest. Spanning 5.6 million acres in Nevada and almost 700,000 acres in California, it is the largest forest in the lower 48 states. 

Ahead of 2025, Humboldt-Toiyabe’s supervisor opted into the Forest Service’s annual competition and won the honor of providing the tree. 

When standing, Silver Belle was perfectly conical and tall enough to impress.

“This tree was just a blessing,” Rep. Mark Amodei (R-NV), who represents the Carson Ranger District, told The Nevada Independent.

Harvested from near the Mount Rose summit in late October, the tree arrived in Washington, D.C., on Nov. 21 after a more than 3,000-mile journey on a flatbed trailer.

The honor of providing the nation’s Christmas tree rotates from forest to forest, said Chris Buckley, public affairs specialist for the Forest Service. 

With more than 150 national forests in the nation, “If you do the math, this is probably the only time we’ll see this in our lifetime,” she said.

The search begins

Nevada foresters began searching for the perfect tree more than a year ago.

Selection criteria was provided by the Architect of the Capitol’s office, but “a lot of it was really intuitive,” said Duncan Leao, forester for the Humboldt-Toiyabe National Forest.

The tree needed to measure between 50 and 80 feet tall and no more than 30 feet wide.

It needed to be pointy, conical-shaped and free of insects or disease, growing in an open area so that its limbs weren’t crowded by other trees.

And it needed to be accessible, with a road close enough to transport heavy equipment in for its removal.

Trees from across the state — the Jarbidge and Ruby mountains, Mount Charleston and Mount Rose areas — were carefully scrutinized as early as August 2024.

Nine final candidates emerged — five white firs in Southern Nevada and four red firs up north. 

“Instantly, my competitive antenna goes up,” Amodei said. 

The congressman volunteered to join the arborist evaluating the trees, but was told he could not. Instead, he had one of his staffers prepare a pamphlet “the size of a small phone book” detailing the region’s historical significance. He strategically pointed out that Clark County was not part of Nevada when the state was created. 

Amodei also scoped out the local candidates. On the ride to see them, he perused photos of the competition. 

“I’m going, ‘Oh shit, those are really good-looking trees,’” Amodei said. “It’s like, you watch the tape of the team that you’re gonna play, and you’re like, ‘Oh, we’re gonna get killed.’”

Hope returned when he spotted one flawless tree — Silver Belle. 

Entomologists and pathologists examined the trees, as well as their habitat. Red firs are susceptible to a fungus called rust, dwarf mistletoe and a type of bark beetle known as a “fir engraver.” Certain types of caterpillar moths like to chew on fir tree needles — some of the Southern Nevada trees showed evidence of moth damage.

“You don’t just look at the trees, you look at what else is going on around them,” Leao said. “That could be a sign.”

In the end, Silver Belle emerged the winner.

Growing an average of 1 foot per year before harvesting, Silver Belle is roughly 50 years old with what the Forest Service identified as “impressive” growth rings. If the tree hadn’t been harvested, Leao said, it could have lived up to about 250 years.

Silver Belle’s cross-country travel

Michael Porter, a flatbed truck driver for Swift Transportation, was tasked with driving the 80-foot-long trailer — including the cab, the rig measures about 100 feet long — across the country.  

“[It’s] definitely a little stressful, nerve-racking,” he told The Nevada Independent before starting the journey.

Prior to being tapped for the task, the longest load he’d hauled was a 60-foot-trailer, he said.

The tree was insured in case it ran into any trouble along the way, but local law enforcement would have the responsibility of dealing with unexpected hiccups. 

“This is definitely one I don’t want to find out how that works,” Porter said before departing Reno. “The goal is to get it there safely and intact.”

Silver Belle spent her — the tree is referred to as a female, like a boat, Buckley said — travels in an expansive wooden crate with heavy tarping. At public stops along the journey east, the tarps were peeled back to allow people a peek at her branches. 

More than $1 million of cash and in-kind donations helped fund the tree’s trip. Sponsors supplied the crane, truck and fuel and secured the permits required to haul Silver Belle through local communities.

“It really does help when we reach out to these different organizations that have a special set of skills,” said Christina Booth, U.S. Capitol Christmas tree lead at the Society of American Foresters.

To stay as fresh as possible on the journey, Silver Belle drank 10 to 15 gallons of water per day during transport from an 80-gallon, refillable bladder made from material similar to a river raft.

After Silver Belle was harvested, foresters smoothed the tree’s base, laid about an inch of wax on the end, then warmed the wax to seal the bladder to it, Leao said. (Fun fact: dozens of toilet wax rings were used for the purpose.) Ratchet straps held the bladder, which rested on a cradle, in place.

The tree needs constant access to water to stay as fresh as possible now that it no longer has a root system to tap into; the bladder creates a sort of false root system that the tree can tap into, pulling water into the trees’ cells (although at some point the tree will no longer be able to pull in enough moisture). 

“It’s a zombie tree,” Leao joked.

Silver Belle’s post-Capitol legacy

Also shipped to D.C. were dozens of branches harvested from another red fir tree that can replace any of Silver Belle’s branches damaged during transport. After the Architect of the Capitol received the tree, “it’s his job to pretty it up,” Buckley said. Damaged branches were replaced with the supplemental limbs, screwed into place.

The tree arrived at the Capitol on Friday, Nov. 21, when a crane stood her up on the West Lawn. By Monday, she was adorned with a healthy sampling of the more than 23,000 ornaments (more than twice the number the Forest Service requested) Nevadans submitted for the tree. The entire Nevada congressional delegation is scheduled to attend the official tree lighting ceremony on Dec. 2.

And after the holidays?

The top and branches will be mulched, Leao said. The tree’s base will be milled into smaller lengths of lumber, and some of it will return to the Humboldt-Toiyabe National Forest to be repurposed or exhibited, Leao said.

Amodei has been working on a plan to help Silver Belle’s legacy live on. He said the Nevada State Railroad Museum in Carson City is on board with showcasing the lumber in a historically accurate flatcar display. 

“If somebody’s got a better idea, we’ll certainly look at that,” he said. “But I feel strongly it needs to come home.”