Since 1976, Noble Mountain has been one of the world's largest suppliers of Plantation Noble Fir, Douglas Fir, Scotch Pine and Grand Fir Christmas trees. Over the years the market has continually changed which has given us the opportunity to now also grow and offer several other varieties of trees such as Nordmann Fir.

Our combined farms total over 3,600 acres and along with our headquarters are strategically located on the edge of, and within, Oregon's famed and fertile Willamette Valley. Noble Mountain Tree Farm is in a region foresters say is one of the finest natural tree growing areas in the world.

Here, where winters are crisp and moist, and summers are sunny and mild, Noble, Grand and Douglas Fir trees flourish. Nurtured by experienced hands, they are brought to perfection in late fall and helicopter-harvested mere hours before shipment to meet the growing American demand for natural trees at Christmas.

Thanks to technology and years of experience we have the ability to service large and small customers alike. Our highly skilled staff and sales people can help meet your every need whether it’s a single mixed species load of 200 trees or an order of 100,000 or more with multiple drops and mixed spicies. Our sales data over the years has helped us develop some of the best sell through percentages in the industry for our customers.

Here's What a Buyer Should Know About Noble Mountain Tree Farm

• Harvested trees are selected from a planting of 6 million trees to assure both uniformity and quality
• Trees are individually baled to minimize breakage and shipping costs
• Mechanized and modern shipping area provides the buyer with clean, crisp, undamaged trees
• All-weather roads in loading area means trucks move out on schedule
• Trees are sold in 1-foot increments from 2 to 10 feet in height

Noble Mountain will - on request:

• Direct ship to store or lots in truckload or less then a truckload quantities.
• Drop shipment throughout the selling season on larger orders to help our customers with their cash flow and to maintain freshness.
• Mix loads of Noble, Douglas, Grand Fir, and other species to help meet the diversified needs of the consumer.

Trees Available from Noble Mountain Tree Farm

• Cultured Noble Fir - individually cultured for the full "natural" Noble look
• Premium plantation Douglas Fir - sheared and shaped to the ideal Christmas tree shape
• Grand Fir - individually cultured to create the thick, bushy look preferred by Grand buyers
• Scotch Pine - sheared and shaped to near-perfect teardrop shape

View a short video about Noble Mountain

Note to Buyers

To assure November/December availability of trees, tentative orders should be placed by the previous June. The buyer's schedule of delivery dates should be set in late September and no later than October 15.

Tree price lists are available by calling Noble Mountain at 800-676-7719. We have operators taking calls on a 24-hour basis during the buying and harvesting season and your call is welcome at anytime.


Noble Mountain Provides Buyers Consistent Quality & Prompt Delivery

Over the years Noble Mountain Tree Farm has developed a reputation for consistent high quality, prompt delivery, and competitive prices. The combination of ownership and management experience totals more than 150 years. That is a fact which figures in our ability to deliver a fresh, highly profitable product to our customers.

We sincerely believe we offer the buyer more than other major growers and stand ready at anytime to respond to your questions. We have been and will continue to be a leader in the production and delivery of legendary quality trees to satisfied customers.

HISTORY
By Joy Stohr

Close to 32 years ago, the Christmas Tree growers in the Northwest had a very good reason to be concerned – the possibility of a flooded tree market was very real.

In the hills near Salem, OR, Crown Zellerbach Company had been quietly growing noble fir Christmas Trees on over 1,000 acres. Up to this time, the industry was primarily made up of family businesses and small landowners growing trees on dozens of small tree farms.

Crown Zellerbach was the first large corporation to enter the Northwest Christmas Tree market. However, as a result of early mass plantings, Crown had an enormous amount of trees that were going to become marketable all at once.

Crown had hired Paul Goodmonson, a recently retired partner of Holiday Tree Farms in Corvallis, Oregon as a consultant. Due to the fact that Crown had not developed a market for the trees, they were advised to sell the entire farm. At that time, their farm consisted of 1,117 acres with over one million noble firs coming to market over the next two-year period.

When my husband, Bob Stohr, and I got the call about the pending sale, we were definitely interested. However, we knew that our company, Douglas Fir Christmas Trees, and we could not handle such a large purchase alone. But Bob didn’t give up and he decided to put together a group of potential buyers. He turned to three skilled Christmas Tree men to join him in the purchase.

His first agenda was to convince Paul Goodmonson that he was too young to retire and still very much needed in the industry. Paul had previously served as the President of the Pacific Northwest Christmas Tree Association, as had Bob. Paul later served as the President of the National Christmas Tree Association. Bob also served as a trustee for the National from the Pacific Northwest.

Second, Bob asked Gary Bishop from Ken Del Ranch in Northern California to join the group. Bob had dealt with Gary and his father, Ken Bishop, for some time in Los Angeles. Ken Del had wholesaled large numbers of trees in the LA area for many years.

Third, Bob invited Fred Peste, at that time his partner in Douglas Fir Christmas Tree Company in Shelton, Washington, to participate in the venture. Many Northwest growers will remember Fred as a pioneer in the industry and subsequently a recipient of the Herb Plum Award.

Negotiations Held "Between the Boxes"

Negotiations with Crown Zellerbach began. It was an exciting time for all of us. Bob and I had just purchased on old house on American Lake, just out of Tacoma Washington. It was in need of much work.

Even in the midst of all the remodeling, it seemed as if our meetings with our potential partners and Crown representatives always ended up at our house. We were pretty much living out of boxes at the time. Consequently, on the day of the signing, the Crown executives and the four new owners toasted champagne to each other in plastic slurpy cups! We joked about that for many years.

So, it was four families, all experienced tree people that became the new owners. A fifth partner, LA investor, came in later. The year was 1976 when Crown Zellerbach’s farm became the new Noble Mountain Tree Farm.

Bob had great concern about the large number of trees coming to market from the Crown farm and their potential impact on the industry. Fortunately, Douglas Fir Christmas Tree Company was selling much more than it was producing and that was helpful in moving many of the newly available noble fir trees.

Bob was determined that the trees were to be spread over a wide geographic area to avoid flooding the traditional Northwest markets. Together, Bob and Gary Bishop spent a great deal of time searching and charting new avenues of sales across the United States.
They targeted the East Coast. This proved to be a real challenge because, while Northwesterners believed noble to be our most desirable species, it was unheard of back east. It took real salesmanship, but Noble Mountain became the first Northwest company to develop a market for this species in such far away markets.

Incidentally, they were successful enough in their sales efforts that the western markets were not “flooded” with noble fir trees.

Four main employees who were previously at Crown Zellerbach have remained to become a very important part of the Noble Mountain Tree Farm staff today:

Jeanette Spurgeon, assistant manager and personnel manager, has just celebrated her 30th year of employment. Gary Elder, general farm foreman, Greg Johnson, shop foreman, and Bob Schaefer also have continued to become key members of the organization. Bob was selected to become the general manager. We are grateful to have retained these original staff members for so many years.

Paul Goodmonson, the only Oregon in the group, agreed to be become the first managing partner, a position he held until 1984 when he retired. Bob Stohr then became the managing partner.

A TRAGIC LOSS

In 1996 my husband, Bob, was killed in a car accident. He lost control of his car trying to avoid hitting a dog that jumped out in front of him.

Due to Bob’s death, many changes have taken place. Rather than becoming sole manager of Douglas Fir Christmas Tree Company and responsible as the managing partner/owner of Noble Mountain, I chose to offer the Washington farms for sale to Noble Mountain Tree Farm.

The central nucleus of Douglas Fir’s farms is now a part of Noble Mountain’s holdings. The outlying farms are being sold to other growers. As we finish out the Washington farms, we plan to continue our growth in Oregon to be able to service those accounts of Douglas Fir and Noble Mountain Tree Farms.

Noble Mountain was fortunate to to purchase the tree production of Tilton Valley Tree Farms, located near Morton, WA. This tree purchase will enable us to provide a consistent supply of noble fir trees for our customers for several years – particularly during the current squeeze on the supply of nobles.

As many of you may remember, Borden Nanny was one of the owners of Tilton Valley. He ably served as president of both the Northwest and the National Christmas Tree Associations.
Today, the Stohr Family Trust is the managing partner of Noble Mountain Tree Farm. The trust consists of myself, owner and general partner, Elvin Vandeberg, family attorney, and Carl Hogan, lifetime friend and businessperson as trustees.

New on the staff of Noble Mountain Tree Farm are several key employees of Douglas Fir Christmas Tree Company including Craig French, Washington Farm Manager.

As Douglas Fir Christmas Tree Company sells the remainder of its tree farms, its emphasis will turn to timber management and some land development in Washington state. For the majority of its fields and key staff to become part of Noble Mountain was a natural fit.

The combined Douglas Fir Christmas Tree Christmas Company and Noble Mountain Tree Farms are Bob Stohr’s legacy to an industry he loved so much. The land base has grown from its original 1,117 acres from Crown Zellerbach, to 3,600 acres under the “new” Noble Mountain umbrella.