Northern Wyoming News - Serving the Big Horn Basin for over 100 years

LOVELL (WNE) — The Christmas tree at Lovell’s Main Street mural park has been vandalized, with every ornament stolen from its bottom half.

According to Lovell Patrol Sergeant Jonathan Mueller, it was reported Friday that from the bottom of the Christmas tree to eight feet up, the tree stood bare.

“It’s definitely not the end of Christmas,” Parks Manager Gary Emmett said. “But the Grinch stole a part of Christmas.”

According to Emmett, whoever took the ornaments ripped them off, often leaving the hooks of the ornaments on the trees.

It’s an act of destruction that will cost the town up to $500.

Emmett said the town crew found roughly a dozen of the ornaments shattered on the Emblem Highway, heading south toward Foster Gulch.

Christmas decorating is a large undertaking for Lovell town workers, Emmett said. From driving to the Big Horn Mountains to secure the tree, to decorating throughout town, up to 300 man hours are put in every year in order to get Lovell decked out for the Christmas season.

“Many citizens comment on the feeling they get of Christmas, driving around town, and more than just a sense of pride, there’s a sense of comfort

that it brings to a lot of people,” Emmett said. “Really, it’s that sense of the Christmas spirit.”

Emmett said that’s the real cost of the vandalism that took place.

“It’s that sense of community pride. That’s the hard part,” Emmett said. “When that gets taken away from the community, it makes a big difference.”