How a Christmas tree tradition started

It's been a symbol of Christmas in Green River for years and years, yet many may not recall how the tradition started.

One Green River resident claims he remembers just how it all began or at least to his recollection.

Pat Merchant said it all started with what he thought was a "crazy idea" from his friend Mike Miller.

"I've been here my whole life and I don't remember one up there before that," Merchant said.

It was December of 1976. Merchant and Miller were seniors at the Green River High School.

"We always came up with ideas," Merchant said.

Merchant and Miller were sitting in the cafeteria at the high school one day when Miller told Merchant he had an idea.

"I thought 'this is gonna require work,'" Merchant said.

"I want to put a tree up on Mansface," Miller had told Merchant.

Merchant paused for a moment to determine if his friend was being serious or not. Back then there was no electricity or anything up on Mansface like there is today.

"We had snow like you wouldn't believe," Merchant said.

He recalled skiing that year in May.

Merchant decided to go along with his friend's idea.

They drove up to the top of Mansface, well as close as they could get, to take a look and see where they were going to put a Christmas tree. Miller saw a crack at the face of Mansface where he figured he could jam a tree in.

"We had a plan to cut a big enough tree and strap it in," Merchant said.

So, one day, the boys and a couple of their friends took what they called "a personal early-out day" off from school to go to the Uintas and find the perfect Christmas tree to place in the crack.

They borrowed a trailer and set off for the forest.

"We cut down a tree that was probably 16-to-18-feet high," Merchant said.

It was no small task, the high schoolers were wading through the snow up to their knees to get to the tree and carry it back to the truck.

"I thought we were going to die getting it to the truck," he said.

When they got the tree close enough to the trailer, they were able to hook chains to it and pull it closer and closer to the trailer.

The next step was getting it put up on Mansface. This also was not an easy task. Merchant said he thought it took them an entire week.

"We had like 3 feet to work with or you would just drop off the edge," Merchant said.

With a borrowed generator, hammer drill, cement anchors and other tools, Merchant, Miller and their friends drove up to Mansface with the tree.

They drilled into the rock and put cement anchors into the rock, which would be used to secure the tree.

"The snow was so deep and we had to drag the tree 50 to 60 yards to the spot," Merchant said. "We were dragging it inch by inch by inch."

Merchant said they had to try and fit the tree in the crack, but the good old Wyoming wind thought otherwise.

Eventually, the group was able to hook guide wires around the tree and secure it to the clamps.

They had to trim the trunk a few times to get it to fit.

"We finally got it in there and it didn't move," Merchant said. "I mean this tree was not going to budge."

After they secured the tree, they all realized they made one big mistake -- they didn't decorate it first.

They created make shift poles to put the lights on the tree. Merchant said there was no way they could go around the whole tree so they did the best they could.

"It took a while to get lights on this thing," he said.

Then after they got the lights on, the Wyoming wind once again picked up and blew some right off. They secured the lights to the tree by tying the lights to the branches.

Miller had built a breaker panel to plug all of the lights into, which ran to the generator.

"We never did light it until the week of Christmas," Merchant said.

When they did light it, they had to take shifts.

"We were borrowing the generator and we didn't want someone to borrow it from us," he said.

It was cold and they had the tree lit from 6:30-11 p.m. each night, but the memories were worth it.

"I don't have a single school memory from eighth grade on that didn't involve Mike Miller," Merchant said.

Merchant recalled how well received the tree was in town. That's all folks around town were talking about. A church group even gathered around the tree one night and sang Christmas carols.

Miller has since died and seeing a tree up on Mansface each year is a reminder to Merchant of Miller's idea. It's his legacy.

"When I see that tree up there I just smile," Merchant said. "Mike Miller and his Christmas tree."