On a wet November morning, Dawn Myron, Director of Communications at the Durham Museum, checks in with Keegan Smutz.
Smutz works for Union Pacific in bridge maintenance, but for one week each year, he and his team cut, deliver, and adorn Durham’s annual Christmas tree. This year marks Smutz’s tenth tree.
“Everything’s going to go as planned, unless you tell me otherwise,” Myron informed me.
“Everything should go well. “It’s going to be a lot of fun, the first one I’ve done in the rain,” Smutz answered.
Rain, snow, or shine, Smutz and his crew will transport the tree to the museum.
More than a dozen Union Pacific personnel are donning fluorescent raincoats and helmets. Instead of their typical work of bridge maintenance—they’re taking
The team will spend the next three hours cutting down a large 40-foot-tall spruce tree in a West Omaha front yard. The tree will then be loaded onto a flatbed truck and driven 18 miles through the city before being installed in the Durham Museum’s main hall.
The persistent rain slowed the project, but Smutz and his staff worked steadily, with Smutz serving as the point person and directing.
Pete Gantier and Dave Weigel are standing to the side, watching the crew and speaking with Smutz. Gantier and Weigel are both retired now, although Gantier was a Union Pacific foreman and once Smutz’s foreman, while Weigel drove a boom truck.
Like Smutz, they would spend a week in November cutting, distributing, and decorating Durham’s yearly Christmas tree. The two talked about the trees they’d cut and delivered in the past with Smutz.
“Remember the one we waited until it became really soft?” Gantier asked Weigel.
“That was at the crossroads,” Weigel explained. “Whatever thing was, it had frozen in the morning. By the time we had the tree loaded, they had to pull us out with a wrecker.”
“It was disastrous,” Gantier explained.
“How many years have you done this?” Smutz inquired.
“I can’t recall. 10 or 15 of us done it?” Gantier explained.
“You mean I’m catching up to you, this is number 10 for me,” laughed Smutz.
“Oh yeah, you’ll probably go right past me,” Gantier said, laughing to himself.
With the buzz of the chainsaw, the tree is cautiously placed.
“Perfect, another one down,” Smutz remarked as his crewmates congratulated him.
They load it onto the flatbed truck and drive out to Durham.
“It’s amazing to be a part of something so big in Omaha,” Smutz explained. “A lot of planning goes into it, and it always turns out great. As I mentioned, it’s similar to the Rockefeller Center tree, but for Omaha.”
He joined Union Pacific in early 2015 and was assigned to the bridge maintenance crew, which handles this project. He had no notion when he joined that he would be part of such a long-standing institution.
His father also worked for Union Pacific, albeit in a different department. Smutz hoped to follow in his footsteps.
“My dad worked for the railroad for 34, 33 years I think,” Smutz told me. “He’s been coming to every one since I’ve been here, since I’ve been doing it.”
Normally, Smutz’s path separates him from his family for extended periods of time. One advantage of this Christmas assignment is that it allows me to be near to home.
“We go from Council Bluffs to Grand Island, and then from Offutt up north of Sioux City,” Smutz told me. “We have a big territory—nearly half the state. So this keeps us at home for the week. It is kind of pleasant.”
After a few attempts and mopping up rainwater, the driver honked the pickup truck’s horn as a warning before flooring it and flying past the ecstatic onlookers.
The main hall at the Durham erupts in applause, and for many, the Christmas season has begun. The tree had officially arrived, and Smutz reflected on his voyage.
“Luckily, it was just the job I hired out on the railroad, and I had no idea that this department did it,” Smutz recalled. “Just fortunate enough to be the first one, or my first tree.”
Smutz said it’s vital for his family to go each year.
“My wife and kids arrived first, followed by both of my parents today. So that was fantastic,” Smutz stated.
Smutz and his family pose for pictures in front of the 40-foot spruce, which is laying on its side in the Durham’s enormous entrance hall. Smutz and his daughter discussed Christmas.
Wiegel came to watch the tree be driven into the museum and made sure the daughters understand what is essential on this memorable day.
“Now, when you girls get old enough for school, you tell Mommy, you got to have the day off to come watch,” Weigel joked.
“That’s a must,” Smutz and his wife agreed.
Even after a decade of delivering Christmas cheer to Durham, Smutz says he has no intention of stopping.
“I’ve got 25 years left in my career here at the railroad, and I’ll do it as long as I’m into in the department,” according to him. “I’ll keep making it.”