For the past 15 winters, travelers along a remote stretch of Interstate 90 in Montana have been charmed by a lone pine tree decorated for Christmas, but no one knew about its origins. Some believed it was a memorial or a tradition started by the local Native American Crow Reservation.
Cowboy State Daily reports that the mystery was solved when Carl Stark and his wife Jonnie, who’d been curious for years, left a note on the tree. They noticed every year the same tree would be decorated a week or 2 after Thanksgiving so before it was decorated he put a note in the tree. “I had talked to other people that said they thought it was a memorial for somebody that died, others thought it was the native Americans attempting to welcome Christians to the reservation, so it was a big mystery. I just said my wife and I are dying to know who is decorating this tree and why".
A few weeks later Carl got a call from the decorator himself, German Segura, a 70-year-old trucker from Texas who has a regular 4000 mile trip to Calgary Canada.
In 2008 during a snowy drive through the area while chatting on the phone Elsa who was home in Texas. “I said, ‘I just passed a little orphan in the middle of the road, and he’s got no jacket', I’m joking with my wife, and then she said, ‘Stop right there, German Segura. You turn around and give him a jacket!’” I actually stopped the truck let her hear me open and close the door and told her I was going to hang up so I could put a jacket on the lonely tree. I kinda felt bad because I was lying".
The next winter before he made his trip from TX to Canada he bought some Christmas decorations and told his wife it was for the tree in Montana. She smiled. So I pulled over and decorated the tree and took a picture for her and it made her so happy. In 2011 “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,” The Chief asked if he was the same person who had decorated the past few years . When German confirmed that it was him the Chief said “Thank you for the gift. Take my number and let me know when you're coming next year because we have some folks who want to help". So then a little band of elves joined the process but promised to not speak of it. Finally German's wife and other family members wanted to come and be a part of it so it grew even more.
What started as a gesture from German to his wife has become a beloved community tradition. After working in the shadows for years, German now gets to see the joy that the tradition he started brings to the community, and he’s deeply moved by the gratitude.
Photo: Jasmin Merdan / Moment / Getty Images