The Story Behind Our Heritage Tree: The Greatest Tree in Town

Tree Lights Up at
6:00 PM

The Heritage Tree fully lit at night, ninety feet of multicolored strands running from a white star at the crown down to the ground, the house glowing beneath it and pickup trucks parked along the street — **The Greatest Tree in Town.** Sixteen strands, 1,760 lights, one man on a ladder for thirty years. The 30th anniversary lighting, December 6, 2024.

A uniquely Encinitas story of how the lighting of the Encinitas Heritage tree on the corner of 4th and C street overlooking Moonlight Beach, has now “officially” become an Encinitas tradition.

Originally three feet tall when planted in 1952 by Peter and John Danforth, where they lived and grew up, as a Mother’s Day present. The 72-year-old Norfolk Island Pine now stands at 90 feet. Peter’s grandson Patrick recalls that the Danforth family, “decorated the tree with lights until the early seventies until the tree became too tall so we couldn’t do it any more.”

The whole pine seen from across the street against a deep blue sky, extension ladders and a pickup truck at its base, two people working below and the ocean visible past the rooftops — **Three Feet to Ninety.** A Mother’s Day present in 1952, photographed from across the street seventy-two years later.

And the pine continued to grow but remained undecorated until 1994. And then at 65 feet tall, a local colorful Encinitan, Luis Ortiz, stepped up to tackle the challenge.

Luis Ortiz seated at home in a dark FASTLANE sweatshirt, laughing, the wall behind him covered with framed Native American art, carvings and keepsakes — **Luis Ortiz.** The man who stepped up in 1994, at home among thirty years of collected Native American art.

And yes, that would be 30 years ago, which makes this year’s tree-lighting event on Friday, December 6th, at Moonlight Beach (4:00 to 6:00 pm) the 30th anniversary.

Set-Up Day

Before any of it happens, the street closes and the tree gets climbed. These are from one set-up day, start to finish.

The full Norfolk Island Pine on a clear day with a green boom lift arm arching high over its crown and a second white lift raised beside the trunk, crew in orange vests on the sidewalk and houses below — **Ninety Feet of Reach.** The boom comes over the crown from the street; the second lift works the trunk. Set-up day starts here.

A man near the top of an orange extension ladder working at the metal collar clamped around the trunk while three men stand on the sidewalk below holding a line, one of them white-haired in a teal shirt — **The Yoke Goes On.** Everything above depends on this collar going on straight — one man up the ladder, three on the line below.

Next to Luis himself, Jim Filanc, an Encinitas Historical Society board chair and longtime organizer and director of the project, knows the story better than anybody. “Luis”, Jim tells me matter-of-factly, “is the father” of the tree lighting. He “put the tree together, he designed the tree, he’s not an engineer but he’s got his own unique genius that he figured out how to engineer all the pieces and make the tree work all these years.”

Jim Filanc standing and Luis Ortiz seated on the low sea wall above the beach, the ocean, palms and rooftops behind them on a clear day — **Jim and Luis.** Jim Filanc and Luis Ortiz at the base of the Heritage Tree, Moonlight Beach in the background.

One of the key engineering components that makes it all work is ‘the yoke,’ a metal collar, which is installed around the trunk of the tree just below the lowest branches, and is responsible for the even, stable spacing, and angle of the 16, 110-foot strands of 1,760 LED lights.

The trunk at street level with the light strands running down from high in the tree and fanning out over the tiled roof and arched doorway of the house beside it, a palm tree at the right — **Sixteen Lines, One Angle.** The strands come off the yoke — 110 feet each, 1,760 LEDs in all.

“Luis worked with a fabricator,” explains Jim, “described what he wanted, they went through sketches and this is what they came up with… it works beautifully, and not only that, it protects the tree.”

The street closed with cones and barricades, crew in orange high-visibility vests standing in the empty roadway, the boom basket raised into the branches above and a strand of lights angling down to the pavement — **The Street Gives Way to the Tree.** 4th Street was closed for four hours that day, which set a record for the fastest set-up time to date. Lines get walked out across the asphalt before anything goes up.

“1994 is when it started, and 17 years later in 2011, the City of Encinitas was so impressed with Luis’s dedication in lighting a tree,” emphasizes Jim, “where it became such a tradition to the community, that they designated it formally as an official Heritage tree, which there are only two now in the city. And the only reason that it exists and it’s part of the proclamation as a heritage tree, is because Luis has been lighting it for all these years.”

The pine from the street with the green boom arm curving over the very top of the tree and the basket at the crown, one worker in an orange vest and yellow hard hat standing at the base — **Only One Way to the Top.** Ninety feet up, and the last few of them belong to the boom.

When I asked Luis, what motivated him to start taking on this labor of love in the first place, and what’s kept him steadfast on this yearly task, his answer was simply, “The people.”

Here is where I’d like to bring to everybody’s attention that Luis’s dedication has been an act of pure love and service to the community of Encinitas, without expectation of awards, accolades, or even simple recognition. Pure, organic, selfless. 30 freaking years!

Looking straight up into a blue sky at the green lift basket holding two workers in hard hats, one leaning out over the rail, a lit peace sign hanging in the branches beside them — **Two Men and a Peace Sign.** The peace sign waits in the branches while the basket comes around to meet it.

By the end of the 90’s, the tree which grew about one-foot per year, had outgrown the reach of the Encinitas Fire Department hook and ladder, which was used to help Luis set up the tree.

Enter Jim Filanc, who Luis approached and asked if Jim’s father, owner of J.R. Filanc Construction, could provide equipment with a longer reach. Jim recounts, “Not only did my dad say yes, but he told Luis, ‘My sons will take care of you forever. You can always count on them to help with the tree’.”

The top third of the pine from below, the green boom arm reaching in and the basket held among the upper branches, a loop of light strand swinging out against the sky — **‘My Sons Will Take Care of You Forever.’** The promise Jim’s father made, still arriving every December on the end of a boom.

So starting in 1999, Jim says, “I always made sure that Luis had access to the resources, the two-man 235-foot lift extension boom and a two-man crew to help set up and take down the tree every year.”

Over time the tree lighting event has grown significantly and has become more impactful and by 2023 a formal partnership was formed with the city of Encinitas and now they underwrite the whole show along with the Encinitas Rotary Club.

The Celebration

The other half of it is the evening the public comes to — chairs in the parking lot, school choirs on a stage, Santa hats everywhere. The ceremony runs from 4:00 to 6:00 pm, and the tree itself goes on at 6:00, right at the end of it. These photographs are from two of them: the 30th anniversary on December 6, 2024, the night this story was written for, and the following year’s on December 5, 2025.

A wide view of a crowd seated on folding chairs in a parking lot facing a stage under lighting trusses, tall palms and rooftops behind, low golden sunlight across the pavement and Santa hats through the audience — **Chairs in a Parking Lot.** An hour before dark, the seats are already going. December 5, 2025.

A line of children in Santa hats, reindeer headbands and holiday sweaters waiting behind a yellow caution-tape rope and a Backstage sign, parents alongside them, palms and parked cars beyond — **Backstage.** The choirs queue behind a length of caution tape.

Four girls in red Santa hats crowded together onto folding chairs, smiling at the camera, the packed crowd behind them — **Four on Two Chairs.** Four happy faces radiating holiday spirit and excitement.

Four men in red Santa hats and sunglasses standing shoulder to shoulder and grinning, one in a green sweater reading Tree Rex, the ocean and parked cars behind them — **Tree Rex.** The sweater says it.

This year’s entertainment will include several local children’s school choirs and conclude with local Encinitas Song Writing Hall-of-Fame legend Jack Tempchin, best known for songs performed by the Eagles, including “Peaceful Easy Feeling” and “Already Gone.”

A school choir in black with Santa hats standing in rows on a lit stage behind keyboards and microphones, the audience in the foreground holding up phones to photograph them — **Several Local Children’s School Choirs.** Every phone in the front row goes up at once.

Jack Tempchin seated on stage in a dark hat with an acoustic guitar at the microphone, a second musician standing beside him tuning a guitar, amplifiers and a drum kit behind and a child in a Santa hat at the edge of the stage — **Peaceful Easy Evening.** Jack Tempchin ready to play the Heritage Tree celebration, December 6, 2024.

The seated crowd at dusk with an orange and gold sunset filling the sky over the ocean, palms and a flagpole in silhouette, people standing along the back of the lot — **Sunset Over Moonlight Beach.** A beautiful Moonlight Beach sun sets as the festivities continue.

Looking up the trunk at night with the sixteen lit strands radiating out from the metal yoke in every direction, colored bulbs along each line, a JOY sign and a Season’s Greetings banner among the branches, and a diamond-shaped painting of a red poinsettia hanging on the trunk — **Lights On.** The yoke from below, minutes after the switch. The poinsettia was painted by celebrated local Encinitas artist, Kevin Anderson.

On Video

Both of these are Kyle’s own — the song written for the man who climbs the ladder, and the evening it is about.

The Legend of Luis. A song for the man who climbs the ladder. Words, music and video by Kyle Thomas.

Heritage Tree, Holiday Party & Parade. The evening itself, start to finish. Video by Kyle Thomas.

As It Ran in Print

The original pages, Encinitas Magazine, December 2024, pages 18 to 21. Click any page to see it full size.

Page 18 of Encinitas Magazine, the headline The Story Behind Our Heritage Tree, The Greatest Tree in Town, set in colored block letters on black with the opening two columns of text below — Page 18.

Page 19, a full-page night photograph of the Heritage Tree in full color lights above the house at 4th and C, credited in the margin to Martin Miller — Page 19. The full-page photograph is by Martin Miller.

Page 20 of the story, the yoke installation photograph across the top and three columns of text below, with a small picture of Jim and Luis on the sea wall — Page 20.

Page 21, the closing page, the lit tree at dusk at top right under the words The Heritage Tree, with portraits of Luis Ortiz and a set-up-day photograph below — Page 21.