As a tiny seedling began sprouting in the forest along Mount Rose Highway west of Reno, the Vietnam War was ending under President Gerald Ford, the price of gas was 53 cents per gallon and the Kool-Aid man made his first television commercial appearance.

Today, 50 years later, that seedling has grown into Silver Belle, a 53-foot-tall red fir from the Carson Ranger District and the first Capitol Christmas tree to be harvested from Nevada.

Silver Belle will be on display on the West Lawn of the Capitol through the holiday season, and the official lighting took place on Tuesday.

The U.S. Forest Service has provided a Christmas tree for display at the Capitol since 1970, but no tree has ever been harvested from the Humboldt-Toiyabe National Forest. Spanning 5.6 million acres in Nevada and a

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