By Elisha Anderson and Bill Kubota

Months before the Campus Martius Park Christmas tree is cut down, craned onto a trailer, hauled to Detroit and decorated, work to find the tree is underway. 

Martin Emery of Dutchman Tree Farms scouts for massive Christmas trees, including the one now on display in downtown Detroit. 

“To me, a proportionate tree is half as wide as it is tall,” he said. “Nice taper … even straight trunk … nice top, healthy … as dense as we can find … that’s basically what I’m looking for.” 

During the summer, Emery found a Norway spruce in rural Manton and owners willing to part with it. 

The tree is estimated to be roughly 60 years old. It stands about 60 feet tall and weighs around four tons. Last month, the tree arrived at its new home, perched above the fountain at Campus Martius Park near the ice skating rink where it attracts a steady stream of visitors. 

About two million people are expected to see the tree decorated with more than 25,000 lights, hundreds of oversized ornaments and a seven-foot star over the holiday season, said David Cowan, chief public spaces officer at the Downtown Detroit Partnership. 

“The scale of this tree is so grand that people don’t realize when they’re standing next to it that some of these ornaments are like beach ball sized,” he said. 

This is the story of what goes into finding the tree and then transporting it more than 200 miles so it can be enjoyed throughout the holidays.  

On the lookout

Emery has been in the tree business for nearly a half-century. He is always on the hunt for big, decades-old trees growing in Michigan.

“You’re constantly looking,” he said. “No matter where you’re going … you’re always looking.” 

He not only scouts for Michigan, but other places throughout the country — corporate headquarters, cities and iconic places.  

When Emery finds one grand enough to be on display, he hopes to strike a deal with the owner.  

He has written letters, knocked on doors and left business cards. Once, he even stopped by a yard sale. 

“I didn’t want to buy anything from the yard sale, but I said, ‘Hey, I’d like to buy that … tree in your backyard,’” he recalled. 

Emery said he offers those willing to part with their trees a fair price. 

Sometimes, people say yes. Other times — like in the case of the yard sale — they say no.   

Finding the perfect tree

The Norway spruce on Tiffany Kenyon and Devin Collins’ property had been growing long before they moved into their home in rural Manton, near Cadillac, in 2011.

Emery, who works at the tree farm nearby, said he has watched it get bigger for the last 40 years. A Christmas tree grows about a foot a year, he said. Finally, after about six decades, it was big enough to be a candidate to ship to Detroit.   

Over the summer, Collins was outside, and Emery stopped to talk about the tree. The two worked out a deal. 

“We got $1500 for it,” Collins said. 

It wasn’t the first time he’d been approached to sell the tree. Last year, a person from Texas inquired about buying it, Collins recalled.   

“Sounds like they’re harder to come by than they were years ago,” he said.  

When it’s gone from their property, Kenyon plans to use seeds from the tree’s pinecones to try and grow a new one. She said she really liked the tree and hopes people in Detroit appreciate it when they see it. 

“It’s kind of cool what it’s going for,” she said. 

Prepping the tree for transport 

Several steps must take place before the tree can be harvested and moved.

In mid-October, as the leaves on trees showed off their bright reds, oranges and yellows and Christmas tree harvest season had just started Up North, tree climber Dillon Lykins, 27, got to work tying up the branches.

He started at the top of the tree, getting help from a truck near the base with a rope attached to the back of it. Like folding an umbrella, the process makes the tree more compact and easier to transport.  

“You pull each individual branch tight to the base,” Lykins explained.  

For a tree of this size, it’s a multi-day process.

Harvesting the Norway spruce

A few weeks later – on election day in November – it was time for the tree to come down.  

A local TV station was there to document the process and representatives with the Downtown Detroit Partnership also made the trip.  

Once the crane moved into place, the harvest started. 

A chainsaw is run near the base of the Norway spruce. Then the crane carefully moved the tree to a nearby trailer, and a crew secured it for the journey to Detroit. 

The trailer also contained what are sometimes referred to as spare parts. Those are branches from sacrificial trees on Dutchman’s property used to supplement the tree and make it fuller when displayed.    

“It’s mind-blowing how many limbs they stuff into that tree,” Bill Johnson said as he got ready to drive the tree and extra branches to Detroit with his wife, Kelly. 

The haul grabbed people’s attention. When the Johnsons stopped at a gas station, some took out their cell phones to document what they saw. Then the tree headed down US-127 to US-10 and I-75, eventually making its way to Detroit. 

‘An impressive construction project’

The next day, Nov. 6, a crane hoisted it into place at Campus Martius Park. Journalists took pictures and videos as spectators watched.

The tree will be installed and decorated by a crew of ten experts over the next two weeks ahead of the tree lighting event, Cowan said. 

“It is an impressive construction project to get this tree built,” he said. 

Michigan’s Christmas tree industry

Giant Christmas trees like this are only a tiny fraction of those harvested in Michigan – one of the most popular places in the country for growing them. 

Roughly two million trees are expected to be harvested this year in the state and shipped throughout the country, Michigan Christmas Tree Association Executive Director Amy Start said. 

“We’re third in the nation in Christmas tree production,” she said.

Only Oregon and North Carolina harvest more. The climate, hilly terrain and sandy soil provide ideal conditions to grow them in Michigan, Emery said.

He has been in the tree business most of his life, starting at Dutchman when he was 12 picking up work after school. 

“I never left,” he said. 

While his job responsibilities evolved over the next 46 years, one thing remained constant: he had never been to a Christmas tree lighting. 

That changed this year. 

Flipping the switch

Bundled up in a Carhartt jacket and wearing a snowflake necklace that lit up, Emery stood shoulder to shoulder with others attending the 21st annual Detroit Tree Lighting and watched the festivities with wife, Susan.

A giant light switch sat next to the mammoth tree at the event presented by DTE Foundation. 

As the tree lighting neared, a countdown started, and the crowd joined. 

“3, 2, 1,” Emery yelled. 

The switch flipped and the tree shined bright with lights. Emery, along with others looking on, cheered. Christmas music played, and many visitors held their cell phones in the air to record the moment.  

Emery said he’s honored to help bring the tree to Detroit.   

“What the world always needs is a real Christmas tree,” he said. “And that’s as real as it gets.” 

Where Campus Martius Park trees have come from over the years

2024: Manton	2017: Kingsley
2023: Kingsley	2016: Manton
2022: Lake City	2015: Kingsley
2021: Cadillac area	2014: Cadillac
2020: Cadillac area	2013: Kingsley
2019: Kingsley	2012: Kingsley
2018: Plymouth	2011: Kettunen Center (near Tustin)

Source: Downtown Detroit Partnership