Tracking the Capitol Christmas Tree

By Harriette Halepis

Track the Capitol Tree with GPS

This year, the tree that will light up Washington D.C. weighs more than 8,000 pounds, and hails from Arizona’s Apache-Sitgreaves National Forest. The tree traveled more than 4,000 miles to reach the capitol, and anyone could have tracked the tree’s journey by logging onto Trackthetree.com.

SkyBitz (in collaboration with the U.S. Forest Service) outfitted the tree with a GPS Tracking system that effectively recorded the tree’s every movement (well, every detour that the truck hauling the tree took anyway). SkyBitz also set up a Facebook and Twitter account that allowed people to comment on the tree.

The Capitol tree, 10,000 handmade ornaments, and 80 smaller trees (these will be placed throughout the Capitol buildings) all made it safely to Washington D.C., but how does one of the most popular trees in the land get chosen?

The selection of the Capitol Christmas Tree is quite an undertaking. The tree was actually spotted and chosen in mid-July when most people were thinking about summertime barbeques, not wintertime Christmas trees. The tree is then presented to the U.S. Congress, and if the tree is approved it makes the journey from its original location to Washington D.C.

The U.S. Forest Service had hoped that allowing people to track the tree would engage public interest in the tree lighting ceremony. Did it work? While SkyBitz didn’t release its website tracking data, you can head to Trackthetree.com to view the tree’s journey, read the tree’s blog, and make note of all the holiday Capitol happenings.

2009 Capitol Christmas Tree

Tags: GPS Tracking Systems, technology