!n 1959, the first national Christmas tree to come from east of the Mississippi River was shipped from Presque Isle on two Bangor and Aroostook Railroad flat cars.

Seventy feet tall and weighing approximately three tons, the tree traveled to Washington by courtesy of the Bangor and Aroostook, Maine Central, Boston and Maine, Delaware and Hudson, and Pennsylvania railroads.

President Eisenhower lit the tree on the south lawn of the White House on December 23, 1959.
Bangor and Aroostook Railroad's magazine, "Maine Line," v. 8 #1, pp. 9-10.