Maine winter heads to Florida > Tree farmer drives load of snow south

ELLSWORTH — Residents of the southern Florida community of Tequesta who have never seen snow will get a chance to build a snowman and have a snowball fight if all goes as planned Wednesday.

Paul Bates, a driver for Maine Mountain Man, a Franklin Christmas tree grower, set out for Florida on Monday carrying hundreds of balsam fir trees and wreaths — and 1,500 pounds of freshly fallen snow packed in the back of his tractor-trailer. A cooler filled with snowballs was tucked in the back.

If the snow doesn’t melt en route, adults and children in the coastal village of Tequesta, numbering 4,000 inhabitants, will get a chance to whoop it up in the white stuff when the semi rolls in from Maine.

Maine Mountain Man owner Mike Rock has been selling trees in Tequesta, 10 miles north of West Palm Beach, for 19 years. This year he got off to a late start because of the recent spate of snowstorms and the sudden hospitalization of his driver’s wife. He decided to make up for the delay by bringing some snow along as an added attraction. It’s the second time he’s done this over the years.

Reached by phone, Gary Preston, Tequesta public works director, says the cold cargo’s arrival is a big media event in the town, where it was 78 degrees Monday. He says it has snowed there only once — a sixteenth of an inch — in the past two decades.

“There are many people down here who have never seen snow. Because they know it’s coming, they dress for it. They lie in the snow, roll around in it,” Preston said.

He said Rock also supplies Tequesta with a 25-foot balsam fir tree for the village hall, where Santa Claus puts in an appearance and people gather to sing Christmas carols.

Rock is already down in Tequesta setting up his Christmas tree stand and awaiting the tractor-trailer’s arrival. His wife, Patty, and family friends Bob Dow, Doug Young and Bill French drove into Ellsworth Monday morning in search of clean, white snow piles plowed up after the snowstorm the previous night.

Patty and crew found a perfect mound in back of the Maine Coast Mall on Route 3. They began rapidly shoveling the stuff onto blue tarps covering the Christmas trees and wreaths inside the 18-wheeler.

“I hope no one has a heart attack,” she said, watching the men heave close to a ton of snow into the back of the semi.

Ready to head out, driver Bates estimated it would take him three days to reach Tequesta. He was the bearer of snow several years ago. He said he gets a kick out of people’s reactions when he opens the back of the truck.

“It doesn’t last long, but they have a helluva time,” he said, before beginning his long journey south.