SOMERSET, Vt. (AP) - A 55-foot balsam fir that will serve as the official Christmas tree of the U.S. Capitol was harvested Friday, beginning a 10-day tour that will stop at veterans' hospitals, soldiers' homes and museums en route.

"It looked the best, it was full, it was tall enough. It was just right," said Kristi Ponozzo, a spokeswoman for Green Mountain National Forest, where it was cut down.

The 44-year-old tree, chosen in August by U.S. Capitol horticulturist Theodore Bechtol, was felled and prepared for shipping in a festive hour-long ceremony trimmed with traditional yuletide touches - and quirky Vermont accents.

Snow fell lightly, a 60-person Castleton State College choir caroled and a Calvin Coolidge impersonator addressed more than 250 people - including Olympic snowboarding champion Hannah Teter - who gathered in a muddy clearing deep in the forest to watch the harvesting.

"It's a tree that will bring a piece of Vermont beauty to the nation's capital," said Gov. Jim Douglas.

An Abenaki Indian elder, Nanatasis Bluto-Delvental, 57, of Goshen, blessed the tree and was hoisted in a utility company cherry picker to affix "prayer ties" to the tree's limbs and six Special Olympics athletes took turns making the first cuts with a two-man crosscut saw.

Then the real work began.

Using two heavy-duty track digger derricks to lift it, Central Vermont Public Service crews fastened a grappling hook and rope to the base and the tip of the snow-capped two-ton tree, so that it wouldn't fall to the ground when cut, damaging limbs.

Schoolchildren cheered as a logger using a chain saw cut through the base and the tree then hung suspended before being turned sideways so the boughs - the skirt was 30 feet across - could be tied in tight to the trunk for the truck ride south.

The tree, loaded onto a flatbed truck, will travel in a convoy of vehicles passing through Massachusetts, Connecticut, Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Maryland before arriving in the capital Nov. 26.

"It'll be fun," said Fred Beauchamp, 69, who's driving it.

"My kids are so excited, they'd follow the truck down to D.C. if they could," said Jennifer Maier, 38, of Manchester, who attended the ceremony with her six children in tow.

The tree will be lit by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi in a Dec. 5 ceremony on the west front lawn.

Vermont has provided Christmas trees for the nation's capital before - for the White House in 1923 and 1967 and for the Capitol in 1980, 1982 and 1994.

AP-ES-11-16-07 1451EST