PICKENS (UPI) - The National Christmas tree, cut near here Monday, was to start its trip to Washington and the White House today after the special truck that will transport it is moved out of a ditch.

The start of the trip was delayed with the truck skidded off the road about 12 miles from here near Monterville during a heavy snowstorm before reaching the tree site.

Former national woodchopping champion Arden Coger of Webster Springs and Luther Winkler of Pickens worked together to fell the 78-foot tree. Coger used hand tools while Winkler, nephew of Mary Winkler on whose property the tree was located, used a power saw.

About 75 persons, including National Park Service officials who supervised the cutting, were on hand for the event at the Winkler farm on Turkey Back Mountain about four miles from here.

Start of the cutting was delayed for nearly an hour until 2 p.m. by heavy snow that reached near-blizzard proportions.

The felled tree was pulled by a Hope Natural Gas Co crane out of the wooded section to await the arrival of the truck, owned by Prather Trucking Co., Martinsburg, which built an extension on the trailer to handle its big cargo.

Delivery of the tree in Washington was scheduled Thursday. It will be placed on the White House lawn and lighted by President Johnson in a creemony Dec. 18.

Another 50 smaller trees, cut in West Virginia, also are to be placed on the White House lawn, one representing each state.

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