FRESNO COUNTY, Calif. (KSEE/KGPE) – Kings Canyon Park rangers trekked the redwood forest to place a giant wreath around the Nation's Christmas Tree in a nearly century-old tradition. According to the National Park Service, in 1924, R.J. Senior, president of the Sanger Chamber of Commerce, visited what was then General Grant National Park and found himself admiring the towering 267-foot General Grant Tree. The story goes that next to him stood a little girl, who said, "What a wonderful Christmas tree it would be!" R.J. Senior and Charles E. Lee, the then secretary of the Sanger Chamber of Commerce, took the idea to heart, and in 1925, the first Christmas program was held at the Grant Tree. Upon returning home, Lee wrote a letter to President Calvin Coolidge. Four months later, on April 28, 1926, the General Grant Tree was officially dedicated as the Nation’s Christmas Tree. Thirty years later, President Eisenhower dedicated the tree as the country's first and only living national shrine "in memory of the men and women of the Armed Forces who have served and fought and died to keep this Nation free." The annual "Trek to the Tree" is held on the second Sunday of December at 2:30 p.m. at the base of the General Grant Tree in Kings Canyon National Park. Bus services are available from the Sanger Chamber of Commerce.