Jackson tree will spruce up governor's front yard

The Meier family's giant Norway spruce won't be making any appearances in Peanuts cartoons.

Sure, it began humble: a 3 1/2-footer in 1976, its roots wrapped in a burlap sack, sitting in a rural Jackson living room with some little red bows and cloth strawberries hanging off of it.

But Stephen Meier, 25 at the time, planted it close to his parents' driveway after Christmas that year. Too close, it turns out. And that's why the Meier family's spruce -- now 28 feet tall, 21 feet across and 3,200 pounds -- got to be a Christmas tree for another, better-known family 26 years later.

Lately, the tree's lower branches were making it nearly impossible to drive up to the house, a real inconvenience for 79-year-old Dorothy Meier.

Son Stephen and his wife, Teresa, have their own place a mile down County Road 330, along with their tree-selling business, Meier Horse Shoe Pines. The business created connections to the Missouri Department of Conservation, which delivers the annual donated Christmas tree for the Governor's Mansion's front yard.

Missouri first lady Lori Hauser Holden passed on the Meier tree last year, much to Dorothy Meier's dismay.

"I couldn't afford to let it get any bigger," Meier said. "And you know how much they grow in a year."

But the tree got called up to the big leagues this month. Monday morning, 10 workers descended on the spruce, cut its trunk with a large chain saw, lifted it with a crane, loaded it onto a flatbed trailer and took off for Jefferson City.

It was the prettiest tree they ever took back, they said.

hhall@semissourian.com

335-6611, extension 121