High Winds Threatened to Topple North Adams Christmas Tree
NORTH ADAMS, Mass. — Monument Square was closed off for more than two hours on Thursday after high winds caused a guy wire to snap on the city's Christmas tree.
That left the towering pine leaning precariously eastward and toward the Civil War monument.
The last time a holiday tree went down, it took the marble soldier with it.
The 1878 statue's been toppled twice; once from a car accident in 1978 and again in 1999 when the tree went over. Both times, the statue was out of commission for years and both times carefully put back together by Carl Robare of Stamford, Vt.
Employees from Wire & Alarm and the Department of Public Works worked in the bitter 8-degree cold and wind to run another guy wire and pull the tree straight with a backhoe. The tree was also chained in place to keep it falling until it could be properly set again on Friday.
It was about 11:30 when the street was reopened.
