For anyone growing-up in the area, the mention of Wagner Tree Farm is sure to bring back fond memories. The Main Street, Trumbull tree farm, situated on 12 plus acres, was located just north of Tashua Road.
It was the brain-child of Alfred Wagner, the owner of two sawmills in Monroe. The hard work associated with the saw mill began to wear on Alfred in the early 1950’s. After much deliberation, he decided to retire from the mill and start tree farming full-time.
He was already growing evergreen trees on the properties where the mills were operating, Webb Mountain and Jockey Hollow; but he had recently purchased land in Trumbull, where he began planting seedlings.
Tree farming was a family business for the Wagners. Wife Betty and son Don, as well as Alfred’s dad, pitched in and readied the ‘sale area’ on Main Street for the Christmas tree rush. Until the trees on the Trumbull property were tall enough to be harvested, the men of the family sawed the trees on Webb Mountain and trucked them to the Trumbull farm for selling. A new seedling was planted for every tree cut down, a tradition that continued at the Trumbull tree farm.
In 1959, the Wagner family built a house on the property in Trumbull, and continued planting more evergreen trees – blue and green spruce, balsam, Douglas fir and a few white pines. By the 1960’s, the Wagner Tree Farm was in full operation and business was booming. “Close family friends were recruited to lend a hand during the holidays,” recalled Don Wagner, the only child of Alfred and Betty.
People began lining up at 5:30am the first morning the Christmas trees were available for pick-up. “But Mom, on principle, wouldn’t open the front gate until 8:30; and you can just imagine the traffic jam.” So many cars were parked on Main Street and in the ‘turn-around’ that the police had to be called to direct traffic.
The Wagner’s had quite an organized system for selling their trees. Beginning the day after Thanksgiving, people could come to the tree farm and tag a tree in designated fields. “We didn’t cut down the younger trees,” said Don.
Over the next ten days, the trees would be cut and brought to the front of the house where customers would pick them up and pay for them. They also cut down some extra trees to sell to those who hadn’t tagged a tree. “There were always those who saw the crowd and wandered in, not knowing about the tagging.”
Wagner Tree Farm thrived until 1991. Alfred was now 83 and arthritis made it difficult to work the farm. “Running the farm just became too difficult for Dad,”said Don, who by then had his own career and family.
Alfred spent his second retirement pursing his favorite past times, hunting and fishing. (The pond on the property was dug by hand by the family and stocked with rainbow trout just so Alfred could fish.) He died in 2001 at the age of 88.
Many developers had their eye on the tree farm property, but Don and his wife Barbara, residents of Sandy Hook, didn’t want to see “a big box built on it.” They sold the house and land to the town of Trumbull in 2003, and today it is the home of the Trumbull Nature and Arts Center.
Alfred Wagner would surely approve.