POTTER TOWNSHIP — If you have ever driven through the intersection of routes 45 and 144 at the village of Old Fort at night during the Christmas season, you must have seen it.
Just north of that spot, 70 feet in the air, stands a lighted Christmas tree. It sits atop a 70-foot tall silo next to the red barn on the farm of Bob and Agnes Homan. It is visible from nearly a mile away.
During the past 40 years, it has become a holiday tradition for folks in the Centre Hall area. They know it’s really Christmas time when they see the tree perched high above the farm.
According to 93-year-old Agnes Homan and her daughter, Marjorie Korman, in the early 1970s Bob Homan saw a photo of a Christmas tree on a silo in an agricultural magazine and thought it would be a good idea to try on his farm.
Bob and his son Ralph erected the first tree on a smaller silo, which sits along Route 144. They used that silo until 1977, when a new, taller silo was erected about 100 feet back from the road. That taller silo has been the location for the Christmas trees ever since, and a real tree is used each year.
Erecting the tree is a family affair. Although Bob Homan passed away in 2002, his son Ralph Homan, son-in-law Gerald Korman, grandson Brent Korman, and other grandchildren and great-grandchildren have assumed the duty. The date for the tree raising is always in mid-December, to coincide with both Bob and Agnes’ birthdays and not interfere with deer hunting season. Four generations of the family gather for this annual tree-raising and birthday celebration.
On Dec. 11, this year’s tree was hoisted up the silo using a rope with a turnaround pulley at the top of the silo, and a second pulley at the bottom to allow the rope to be pulled horizontally. The rope was tied to a skid loader driven by Gerald and Marjorie Korman’s son-in-law Davis Araujo, and the inverted tree quickly ascended to the top of the silo. Brent Korman and Ralph Homan climbed to the top of the silo and tended to the tricky task of flipping the tree upright and tightly securing it to the handrails around the silo’s top.
Photo: Sam Stitzer
In past years, a string of 100 lights was used, with each light individually tied to a branch. This year, some improvements have been made. “We have 300 lights this year,” said Marjorie Korman. “They’re the LED type.”
Gerald Korman said this year the lights are attached to a large piece of netting from a soccer goal on the ground, then the netting is carried up, draped over the tree and tied fast in six locations on the tree, saving a lot of time and work. Electric power for the lights is supplied via a long extension cord running inside the empty silo to a receptacle in the barn.
Taking the tree down is a lot easier than putting it up. They remove the lights and ropes, and shove the tree over the side of the silo, and let gravity do the work.
The whole process has become a special 40-year tradition for Bob and Agnes Homan’s family, and the tree is a holiday display the community looks forward to seeing.
