Then and Now: The Environmental Christmas Tree

Jesse Tinsley, The Spokesman-Review, Spokane, Wash.
·2 min read

Dec. 24—In the of 1973, the organizers of Expo '74 took a major step toward the world's fair success in Spokane by hiring Tommy Walker of Anaheim, California. Expo General Manager Petr Spurney pointed out that Walker was the country's leading producer of outdoor events and it was appropriate that Walker would be the entertainment consultant to the Spokane fair.

Tommy Walker was most famous for 12 years of work as the director of entertainment at Disneyland, including the 1955 park opening. He would also go on to stage three halftime shows at the Super Bowl, the 1986 Statue of Liberty celebration, the 1981 Ronald Reagan inauguration and other shows at the Rose Bowl and the Winter Olympics.

Walker wasted no time in proposing a way to get advance publicity for the fair and its theme of environmentalism: an "environmental Christmas tree." With just weeks to pull it off, the unique holiday ornament would be designed by engineer Jack M. Lyerla of the firm Walker, McGough, Foltz & Lyerla, Architects and Engineers.

The plan called for 120-foot cedar pole to be planted on the south shore of the Spokane River, then adorned with up to 40,000 aluminum cans, sprayed with bright paint, and strung on the guy wires to create the conifer-shaped sculpture.

The year 1970 brought the creation of the Environmental Protection Agency and the federal Clean Air Act. The Clean Water Act followed in 1972. The landmark legislation and rising environmental awareness brought a new attention to recyclables going into landfills.

Cities, counties and states were crafting and passing a variety of laws to make recycling of certain products mandatory, to encourage recycling with refund or deposit values on containers or to restrict recyclables in the garbage completely.

Cans for the holiday sculpture were donated by school children and gathered up by trucks donated by local soft drink bottlers. The pole was brought from St. Maries, Idaho, laid across three railroad flat cars.

The tree dedication was held Dec. 20, 1973, with a mass choir of up to 500 singers, with several hundred people in the audience. The Ferris High School band and a bell choir from Millwood Presbyterian also performed.

Organizers promised that the cans would be recycled and proceeds given to children's charities.

Tommy Walker died in 1986 at age 63.