By VALERIE MACON
Every year, just before Thanksgiving, Booger Mountain Christmas Tree lots start popping up in local towns. Fuquay-Varina has been privileged to host one of these lots on North Main Street for the past twelve years. I have often wondered about the story behind this Christmas tree business — its origins, its workings, and its strange name. To get the backstory, I spoke with Don Smith who grows the trees and runs the retail business with Greg Johnson.
The business started in the late 1960s by Hal Johnson. Hal purchased a farm in the North Carolina foothills, a property that locals said was haunted. But Hal was not deterred by this. He started to grow white pines on the farm and sell them in his hometown of Raleigh on a small retail lot near Crabtree Valley Mall.
Hal had worked as the editor of “Progressive Farmer Magazine” and was a skilled writer. Capitalizing on local legends, he wrote an account of the Walkers, a family that lived in a log cabin on the farm in the 19th century. Paw Walker had a dubious reputation for running moonshine; and when he was around, neighbors had to keep their eyes on their tools and egg money. The parson would ride his horse “into the holler once every two to three months to concern himself about Paw Walker’s soul.” Then, after a Christmas Eve snowstorm, worried neighbors went to check on the Walkers and found an empty cabin with doors and windows bolted from the inside, no tracks to or from the place, and sugar cookies left out for Saint Nick. It is said that snow falls only over the Walkers’ cabin on Christmas Eve, even when the stars shine in clear skies over the surrounding mountains.
As if that isn’t spooky enough, there are tales of tractors downstream of the Walkers’ cabin that quit running for no good reason, and tales of wailings heard from the old cemetery at the top of the mountain, the ghosts of individuals who died of smallpox and drift down from the mountaintop graveyard overlooking the farm to create mischief at night. Thus, the mountain was said to be haunted, and locals dubbed the mountain peak “Booger Mountain.” The term “booger” in Appalachian culture refers to ghosts or spirits.
Hal Johnson cleverly used this spooky association to create an intriguing name for his Christmas tree business, Booger Mountain Christmas Trees, adding a touch of local legend to the brand. He printed his short tale (titled “Honest” Mountain Legend) on a sheet of paper and gave a copy away with the sale of each Christmas tree.
Don Smith began working for Hal while still in college at NC State in the late 1970s. After graduating, Don moved to the mountains to work the business with Hal. In 1990, Don and Greg Johnson (Hal’s son) took over the business and have been running it ever since. Don continues to manage the farming side of the business with his family in Ashe County. Don and Greg are both involved in the retail aspect, ensuring the trees are sold at various lots.
I asked Don to talk about the process of growing Christmas trees. He tells me you grow a tree from seed, and it takes five years until you plant it in the field. It takes another seven to eight years for the tree to reach a size suitable for cutting. So, by the time you harvest, you have a twelve-to-thirteen-year-old tree that you’ve invested in. Don says that young people can’t get into the tree business anymore. The industry is dominated by established growers, with some companies planting a million trees a year. Business has shifted to larger farms, and there are fewer small-scale growers. In the late 1980s, Booger Mountain had 26 lots, but that number has been reduced to six, all in long-standing locations like Fuquay-Varina, Raleigh and Apex.
How do you harvest all those trees? Don explains, “It’s all manual labor with a chainsaw. You bale them in the field, load them onto trucks, and stockpile them before shipping them to Raleigh. It’s hard to get local labor anymore, so we use H2A labor — Mexican agricultural workers who come in on a visa program. These laborers manage the harvesting and care of the trees throughout the season.” They start working with Don every year in March and stay through mid-December before returning home. Don mentioned that growing Christmas trees involves a lot of work, and these workers do all the planting, shearing, and spraying. Rain usually takes care of watering the trees.
I asked how Hurricane Helene affected the farms. He explained that the trees did not suffer the full effects of the hurricane, but some roads leading into the farms were lost. He said, “The water was just so crazy up here. I’ve never seen the river running so deep; it was just bad.” Fortunately, no trees were lost since they are grown upland. Trees don’t do well on low ground as they tend to get diseased.
Has he seen any changes over the years in what people are looking for in a Christmas tree? He tells me they want bigger-sized trees. And they are buying them earlier and earlier. “It used to be our biggest weekend would be the 10th and 11th of December. Pretty much now it is all over by December 10; everyone has bought their tree by then. Folks are buying their trees within the first week out from Thanksgiving.”
Are there any tips for keeping these early-bought trees fresh during the several weeks until Christmas? Don advises keeping the tree out of direct sunlight and keeping the tree away from heat sources like a floor vent. But the main thing is to keep it watered. If the tree runs out of water, the trunk will seal off and then it won’t take in any water no matter how much you give it. So, don’t let it run out of water — and use only plain water with no additives.
Booger Mountain Christmas Trees provide fresh-cut trees brought down from the mountain throughout the season. It is a family-run business, not corporate. The family works hard to bring you their beautiful, fresh trees, and they take a lot of pride in doing so. It’s time to pick your favorite!
