A 60-foot blue spruce tree arrived in downtown Stillwater this week — just in time for the annual Hometown for the Holidays’ Twinkle Party and tree lighting on Saturday.
The 6,800-pound tree, a gift to the city from Aamodt’s Apple Farm in Grant, now stands in Chestnut Street Plaza.
A 60-foot blue spruce tree was transported from Aamodt’s Apple Farm to the Chestnut Street Plaza in downtown Stillwater on Tuesday, Dec. 2, 2025. (Courtesy of Greg Schulz / PicturesOverStillwater.com)
Owner Chris Aamodt said the tree, which was originally 68 feet tall, was planted by his paternal grandfather, Thor Aamodt, sometime in the 1960s. Thor and his wife, Lucille, started Aamodt’s Apple Farm in 1948 after Thor Aamodt retired from his job as a professor of horticulture and entomology at the University of Minnesota-St. Paul campus.
“The orchard was his retirement project,” Chris Aamodt said. “I literally remember being there when he planted it. My dad (Tom Aamodt) told him that it was too close to the barns and that we would need to cut it down in 40 or 50 years. I think Grandpa planned this.”
Aamodt said he contacted Mayor Ted Kozlowski a few years ago after the mayor put out a request for a tree for the holiday display at Lowell Park. “I said, ‘Dude, I think I have your tree,’” he said.
It turned out Aamodt’s tree was too big for the space at Lowell Park, but city officials made sure that the city’s new Chestnut Street Plaza could handle “a tree that would rival the Rockefeller Center Christmas Tree,” he said.
Jeff and Missy Hause, of JAM Freedom, helped coordinate the crew that cut down the tree and transported it. Among the companies that helped: Big Sky Crane Co., McCallie’s Tree Service and Miller Excavating, Jeff Hause said.
The city’s Twinkle Party will start at 4:30 p.m. Saturday in North Lowell Park. Santa is slated to arrive – by fire truck – around 5 p.m. The lighting of the tree will be at 5:30 p.m.
For more information, go to https://greaterstillwaterchamber.com.
Related Articles
Ex-Washington County deputy sentenced for driving drunk while off duty, crashing into family’s SUV
Washington County, church agree to $7.35M package for Lake Elmo Avenue-Minnesota 36 interchange land
Afton State Park to close next week for deer hunt
Open house scheduled Wednesday for Lake Elmo Avenue project
Cottage Grove asks neighboring communities to help with EMS shortfall
Leave a Reply