In day light, Margot Lane’s twin fir trees at 1535 Culebra Ave. in the Old North End Neighborhood are impressive. They stand nearly nine stories high at about 88 feet each. (See the map below).
For a month each year, from Thanksgiving to New Year’s, the tree are more than impressive. At night, they are spectacular.
That’s when Margot turns on the juice and 37,000 mini white bulbs glow.
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What started in 1999 as Margot and John Lane’s tribute to their son, Bruce, who had died of cancer, has evolved into an annual Christmas gift to Colorado Springs.
Except that Margot is moving in the spring, meaning this could be the last year the trees are lit.
Here are some statistics courtesy of Bob Marchiani of Rocky Mountain Tree Specialist.
He and his son, Marco, spend the week before Thanksgiving weaving 740 strands of white mini lights into the trees. Each strand has 50 bulbs.
Here are a couple other views:
To be precise, the east tree gets 340 strands while the west tree gets 400 strands.
The east tree is the taller of the pair. Bob measured it at about 88 feet while the west tree is about a foot shorter.
Bob made his calculations this way: the bucket at the end of its boom on the back of his truck stands 60 feet high. Bob then uses poles extended 20 feet, 6 inches. With his arms fully extended and standing on his tippy toes, he gains another 7 feet, 6 inches.
Bob said he and Marco use 35 extension cords, ranging from 6 feet to 12 feet long, attached to eight wiring harnesses that drop down to four power outlets at the base of each tree.
One tree draws 57 amps while the other draws 55 amps.
Bob said squirrels do tremendous damage to the lights, chewing through the wires and making other mischief. Ravens also attack the bulbs. Wind is another enemy of the lights.
Here’s a map:
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I did not see an address in this post. Could you tell us so that we can go see the trees?