What started as a reluctant promise to his wife 15 years ago has become an annual holiday tradition that sets the mood for the holiday season in northern Wyoming and southern Montana.
German Segura was back along Interstate 90 north of Sheridan on Crow Reservation land Saturday, decorating a single, lonely tree that has defiantly grown in the median between interstate lanes.
It’s almost the definition of being in the middle of nowhere about halfway between Sheridan and Billings, Montana. But each year Segura — helped by a band of local elves — decorates the tree.
Until last year, it was largely a mystery who was behind dressing up the one tree in a sea of short-cropped grass.
But Segura isn’t a stranger to the area. A Texas resident, he’s been passing this single pine a couple times a week on his regular long-haul trucking route for Sherwin Williams. He runs from Dallas all the way to Calgary, Alberta, Canada.
It’s been the same drive for him for nearly 25 years — three days up, make his delivery, then three days back.
About 1,265 miles north of Dallas, and about 65 miles north of Sheridan, is the tree. Segura decorates it every year and, if it were up to him, he’d leave it festive and colorful year-round.
“We leave it up for awhile, usually from about Thanksgiving through about January or February,” he told Cowboy State Daily.
One year the tree remained decorated into late March until the Montana Department of Transportation finally took all the decorations off. They carefully saved the lights, ornaments and ribbons, he said.
Now the tree is a beacon of cheer in the middle of a whole lot of nothing along I-90, and it’ll be there for several months.
The Joke
That reluctant promise started as a joke, Segura said. He kept passing that sad, lonely tree twice each of his long-haul trucking runs.
One day, he passed the tree while on the phone with his wife Elsa, and joked that it looked like an orphan out in the cold.
“I was talking to my wife, and I passed the little tree and I told her, ‘Oh my God, there’s an orphan on the road without a jacket on,’” Segura said.
Elsa wasn’t having any of that. She told her husband to stop, turn around and give the “orphan” a jacket.
She was very insistent — “she got cranky, cranky, cranky” — and because his wife is “the boss,” Segura said he turned around, drove back and actually wrapped an old jacket he had around the tree.
“I promised her that on my next trip, I’d dress it up,” he said. “And there it is, every year I come back and dress it.”
For years he did it alone, incognito, leaving locals who make the drive between Sheridan and Billings wondering who was decorating the lone tree.
They started leaving cards for him on the tree, which led to a partnership. Now those locals help out.
For the 15th year, German Segura has decorated a lone tree in the median of Interstate 90 between Sheridan and Billings, Montana. (Courtesy German Segura) 
For the 15th year, German Segura has decorated a lone tree in the median of Interstate 90 between Sheridan and Billings, Montana. (Courtesy German Segura) 
For the 15th year, German Segura has decorated a lone tree in the median of Interstate 90 between Sheridan and Billings, Montana. (Courtesy German Segura) 
For the 15th year, German Segura has decorated a lone tree in the median of Interstate 90 between Sheridan and Billings, Montana. (Courtesy German Segura) 
German Segura and the little tree. (Photo Courtesy German Segura)
Tribe Is All For It
The tree is on the Crow Reservation, and Segura said he’s had full support from the local tribes. In fact, this year he found a card on the tree that read: “Merry Christmas from the Blackfeet Nation.”
“It’s Indian land there,” he said. “The road is federal, but not the tree. Nobody has the power to take that tree except the tribe.”
That’s not likely to happen anytime soon.
“For the Crow, they say that the tree has my soul already on it, so they respect that,” Segura said. “The chief says nobody will touch that tree, and all this time, nobody has messed around with it.”
Originally from Mexico, Segura said he’s been able to live his American dream. He loves his job and the places it takes him.
And he loves that one seemingly random tree in a place he’s never called home can have meaning for his family and others.
The message is simple: “Feliz Navidad,” Segura said. “It’s just spreading joy and keeping a promise to my wife. It sounds like a joke, but in the Mexican culture, even a little promise is solid.”
There’s another reason why Segura said he’ll continue decorating the tree as long as he’s able.
“Just imagine if I quit,” he said. “My wife would get all cocky, say, ‘Oh, you don’t love me anymore.’”
Greg Johnson can be reached at greg@cowboystatedaily.com.
