A trucker was on a 4,000-mile round trip from Texas to Canada when he came across a lone pine tree in Montana.

German Segura was traveling through the aftermath of a rough winter storm when he decided to brighten up the mood.

Segura dressed up the lone pine tree in full Christmas spirit which has become a beloved tradition for the last 15 winters.

“Some people thought that it was the Native Americans that were doing it,” said Carl Stark, who lives in nearby Sheridan, Wyoming. “I talked to other people that said it was a memorial for somebody that died, so it was a big mystery.”

The explanation comes back to Segura, 70, who grew up in Mexico, fascinated by the American West. “I was dreaming that I would be a part of the Lewis and Clark expedition, and a Lone Ranger chasing buffalo,” he said.

Segura moved to America 45 years ago with a trucking business. He was assigned the Texas-Calgary route several times a month, which took him through the landscapes of his childhood dreams.

But on one icy December day in 2009 he was driving south, trying to calm his anxious wife, Elsa, on the other end of the telephone line, when he noticed the pine tree sticking out of deep snow.

“I said, ‘I just passed a little orphan in the middle of the road, and he’s got no jacket’,” Segura said. “I’m joking with my wife, and then she said, ‘Stop right there, German Segura. You turn around and give him a jacket!’”

Segura stopped his truck and quickly opened and shut the door, pretending he was leaving to put a jacket on the tree. But as he drove away, he felt he should have done more.

A week later, heading to Calgary again, he stopped by the tree and tied on some ribbons, resolving that the following Christmas, he would do the job properly. “I said, on my next trip, I will dress it well, I promise,” he said.

The following year Segura returned in November with a bunch of decorations. The year after that, he brought even more.

“The [reservation police] chief shows up with lights flashing, and I think, ‘I’m going to get a ticket’, and I got a little bit shaky,” Segura said.

Instead the police chief asked Segura if he was the person who had decorated the tree the two previous years, before adding: “Thank you for the gift … [you should] leave a little note, leave a little something that tells us who you are.”

So the next year, Segura brought a sign he had made at home, reading “Feliz Navidad From TX [Happy Christmas from Texas]”, and pinned it to the tree. He kept returning every November that followed to the same spot with increasingly elaborate decorations, removing them at the end of the winter.

He said he did it “incognito”, because he only planned to keep the tradition alive out of love for his wife: “I can’t break my promise to the boss, and from the beginning she loved it.”

But as the years passed, he noticed small additions to the growing tree: a toy, or a little gift. Then in 2017, he spotted a plastic bag tied to a branch with a note inside. It read: “Thank you, you have no idea how much impact you have in the community.”

For years, authors Jonnie and Carl Stark speculated as to who the decorator was. And now they know.

The couple had left a phone number, so Segura contacted them, and the following year they met up and decorated the tree located on a remote stretch of the Interstate 90 through the Native American Crow Reservation in Montana together.

Over the years, locals would leave stockings, and the Starks have provided a twinkling set of solar lights.

“I really enjoy doing it, reading the comments,” he said. “It makes me cry a little, the little kids, mamas and papas, thanking me for what we do.”

While Segura’s wife of 50 years does not travel and enjoys the tree through her husband’s stories and photos, other friends and family have joined him. His niece came last year and his boss at the trucking company also made a pilgrimage to hang a crystal bauble. And every year, he has a group of helpers willing to make the pine tree as festive as it can be.

“German started all of this, he wanted no recognition, he wasn’t looking for any notoriety, he was just doing it out of the goodness of his heart,” said Carl Stark. “So we’re just his elves.”

Source: The Times

Karen Sharp