Owner of local Christmas tree farm reveals new home, after old house burned in firework accident

MEDFORD, Ore. — The longtime owner of one of the oldest Christmas tree farms in the Rogue Valley, recently moved into his new home with his wife after their former home was destroyed by a fire a year ago.

“The community is great here and I wouldn’t want to live any place else,” said owner of U-Cut Christmas Tree Farm, Larry Ryerson.

After his home was destroyed by a fire last summer, he decided to stay on the same piece of property off Camp Baker Road, that he’s owned since 1975.

“We got the phone call, thought somebody was kidding us. Basically, it took the whole house. We tried to save the back end of it, but pretty much heat and smoke damage made it a complete loss,” he said.

The fire was started by a firework on the 4th of July when Ryerson was out of town.

The devastation of losing his home was only part of the loss – Ryerson says $25,000 worth of equipment for the tree farm was destroyed, too.

He says the community setup a go-fund me page and stepped in to help make sure he could sell trees to the public last year.

“Lot of things they did was for the tree farm and so we had to borrow and loan things like 4-wheelers,” said Ryerson.

It all worked out, Ryerson said community support was so strong he sold 900 Christmas trees and had to end the sale early.

Construction then began on his new home in February.

“The foundation stayed and we did some moving around, like we moved our master bedroom downstairs and so that made a lot of different things happen,” he said.

He adds that the virus has delayed the shipment of some new furniture and appliances, but the home is nearly complete.

“You know, [we] made it through it and the house is a lot nicer than it used to be. I wanna emphasize how appreciative I am to the community for the donations and help they’ve extended our way… it gets to me,” said Ryerson.

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