Trash and debris are piled along U.S. 19E in Cranberry on Wednesday, Nov. 20, 2024. Similar piles can be seen throughout Avery County as the area recovers from the aftermath of Hurricane Helene.
Lisa O'Donnell
NEWLAND -- At the Mountain Glen Golf Club on Wednesday, an elf and Santa Claus mingled with Avery County dignitaries and Christmas tree growers who nibbled on barbecue sliders and brownies; a bluegrass band jammed on the back deck against the backdrop of the Blue Ridge Mountains, and a 20-foot Fraser fir bound for the White House's Blue Room was carefully hoisted off a wagon and put inside a tractor-trailer bound for Washington, D.C.
First lady Jill Biden is expected to receive the tree next week with much fanfare, in what has become a time-honored tradition.
About eight miles down the road in Minneapolis, a community of 185 residents, Zebulon Griffith drove a four-wheeler equipped with a chainsaw and shotgun through an expanse of mud strewn with rocks and broken chunks of trees along the Toe River, past hollowed-out homes, including one with a wall that buckled after the raging waters of the Toe ripped it off its foundation.
A tight-knit community tucked in a remote corner of the county, Minneapolis, by virtue of its position along the Toe, took a relentless beating from Hurricane Helene on Sept. 28.
Water from the river and Big Horse Creek poured through the walls of Griffith's house that day, reminding him of a scene from the horror film, "The Shining," when blood streams from an elevator.
"This storm," he said, "was evil."
The differing scenes that unfolded on Wednesday tell a story of a county that is proud of its prized Christmas trees but still hurting from the battering that Helene inflicted upon it.
Christmas trees, particularly the Fraser firs that flourish in the cool mountain air, are one of the main drivers of the Avery County economy, bringing in about $46 million annually. One of the top tree-growing counties in the country, Avery has about 45 choose-and-cut farms that draw people from the Southeast as well as several other farms that sell wholesale or ship their trees to markets and people across the country.
Orderly rows of Christmas trees blanketing otherwise bald hillsides are as iconic a North Carolina scene as lighthouses along the coast, and nowhere are those views as breathtaking as Avery County.
The White House has come calling before, most recently choosing an Avery County tree from Mountain Top Fraser Fir farm in 2018. Each year, the National Christmas Tree Association picks a grower to provide the White House tree for the following year. Growers compete in state or regional competitions and then advance to a national competition.
Having a tree chosen is a crowning achievement for a grower.
This year's winner was Cartner Christmas Tree Farm, one of the first Christmas tree farms in the county. Sam Cartner, a former county agriculture extension agent, opened the farm in 1959, after switching from tobacco to Fraser firs. Now covering more than 500 acres, Cartner Farm is run by Sam and Margaret Cartner's children, David, Jim and Sam Jr.
The cutting of the tree was cause for celebration in a county that continues to suffer from the effects of Helene, offering a brief but needed respite from the cleaning, clearing, mulching and mourning. Helene claimed the lives of five people in the county; two others remain missing.
Dressed in bib overalls and a ball cap, Dee Clark took a break from one of the busiest times of the year for Christmas tree farmers to celebrate a fellow grower. Clark's farm took a hit from Helene, losing an estimated $3 million in Christmas trees and ornamental plants. The estimate does not include infrastructure losses, including two tree harvesters.
"Especially with what happened this year, it's a bright spot," Clark said of the White House tree. "It makes you feel like you've accomplished something even though it's not your tree."
Most other farms, including the Cartners, lost thousands of trees either to mudslides or flooding.
Sawyer Avery, a descendent of the county's namesake, and others at Avery Family Farm have been scrambling since Helene. Floodwaters from the nearby Toe trashed trucks and other equipment, swamped the office, swept away its bookkeeping records and destroyed 10,000 shipping boxes. Crews were able to salvage some trees for the choose-and-cut market but thousands upon thousands of other trees are caked with muck, struggling to survive in a field littered with debris. A tractor tire, the hard plastic lining of a truck bed, a child's sandal, beer cans and even a Lego toy washed up and settled in among mangled trees.
"You take it one day at a a time at this point," Avery said.
That kind of fortitude was mentioned often by speakers at the Christmas tree ceremony over at the golf club.
By early afternoon, the tree, packed inside the tractor-trailer and blessed by a local pastor, was on its way out of Avery County and to the White House, where the pageantry will begin anew, this time on a larger stage.
Meanwhile in Minneapolis, Mary and Rick Williamson hung drywall in the basement of the Baptist church, their one-eyed beagle, Bella, scampering about. The Toe ravaged the basement, busting out windows and taking down walls. For the last several days, the Williamsons have made the 30-mile drive to Minneapolis to work seven-hour days at a church that they had never heard of before Helene.
They shared a story about a farm in Minneapolis that is now barren, stripped of its top soil.
"It looks like a dry river bed," Mary said.
Much of Minneapolis has that wasteland look; the devastation is hard to comprehend.
And yet, through the rubble, the toppled and twisted trees and broken homes, comes evidence that this community has a mighty spirit that belies its size.
There, among the abandoned homes along the river bank, in a neighborhood that now resembles a ghost town, a flag with the earthy colors of autumn flies from the porch of a condemned house.
"Give Thanks," it reads.
336-727-7420
@lisaodonnellWSJ
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