The voice on the phone was familiar, but the request was not. It was the latter part of September 2000.

The person on the other end of the line was U.S. Sen. Ben Nighthorse Campbell. Over the years I had a number of calls with Ben as he served in different elected roles, so I was familiar with his voice. The senator wasn’t one for formalities when he called. He would merely say, “Greg, this is Ben Nighthorse Campbell”.

I met Sen. Campbell, who died Tuesday at the age of 92, first when he was in the Colorado state legislature and knew him as he moved on to the U.S. House and then the Senate. In the process, Ben switched parties from Democrat to Republican. Though Ben switched parties, he was still the same person despite the party label.

Ben was an enigma in Washington. He was not a traditional politician. To a large extent this was due to Ben’s hardscrabble background. Ben’s early years were difficult ones as his parents struggled with different problems. In turn, Ben spent much of his youth in Catholic orphanages. Ben dropped out of high school and joined the Air Force, where he served as a military policeman during the Korean War. Ben acquired his GED while in the service and, upon his discharge, used the GI Bill to obtain a degree at San Jose State University.

When Ben was young, he grew up around some Japanese immigrants who introduced him to judo. With this background Ben became a member of his college’s judo team and further honed his skills in Japan. That experience helped Ben to achieve national and international recognition and Ben was named to the 1964 Summer Olympics U.S. Judo team where he became the first Native American ever on the team.

Ben was proud of his heritage as a Cheyenne Indian, and he loved the western U.S. and his appearance and office reflected both. He rarely wore a conventional tie but rather a western bolo tie and always wore cowboy boots. He also had a ponytail and for some meetings he would show up on his motorcycle in his leathers. 

My relationship with Ben was largely based on his experience as a truck driver while attending college. He was very proud of that experience and had a special place in his heart for people in the trucking industry. 

After Ben was elected to the Senate, he decided to renew his Commercial Driver’s License (CDL), which authorized him to drive a truck. He reveled in the fact he was the only senator with a CDL. For Ben, the CDL was a link to his past and also sent the message that he was a regular guy. 

Prior to several congressional breaks, Ben called me and said he would like to “drive truck.” He would ask me to line up a company. This wasn’t a publicity stunt, and Ben asked we not contact the press. Ben would be paired with a driver and spend the day on the route with him. Ben enjoyed truck driving and truck drivers and really liked meeting the people on the route. It gave Ben a sense of what was on the minds of the general public. 

Though I received a number of phone calls from Ben over the years, the call on that day was different. Evidently, he discovered from the U.S. Forest Service the Capitol Christmas tree would come from Pike National Forest, near Colorado Springs. From there, the tree would be transported by truck following the old Santa Fe Trail for part of the way. It would be a 2,000-mile trip covering 10 days, as celebrations were planned in 19 towns along the route.

Ben was calling because he wanted to be one of the truckdrivers transporting the tree. After receiving the call, I reached out to Mack Trucks, the company providing the truck. Mack was extremely proud about transporting the tree and was devoting their latest model truck and some of their best drivers to the task. Though they were thrilled about the senator’s interest, there was some trepidation. They feared he might be rusty, and if there was an accident, it would not only affect the delivery of the Christmas tree but also could result in fallout for the company if a U.S. Senator was injured or worse.  

Initially, Mack thought this was a PR stunt and Ben would travel only a short segment of the trip. They reminded me the trip would span 10 days. I mentioned Ben cared little for any press coverage, and he was in it for the “long haul” and wanted to be one of the drivers. Ben loved the idea of spending several days with truckdrivers and gaining citizens’ perspectives during the many stops along the route. Ben also realized the tree would be very special to those small towns along the route, as he lived in a little community in southwest Colorado.

After some hesitation, Mack agreed, and on Nov. 24 the truck with the tree covered in shrink wrap to look like a covered Conestoga wagon, departed. To kick off the trip, Ben got on the CB and delivered the message: “Breaker break, you truckers have your ears on? What’s your 10-20? This is Night-horse and Santa Claus and 20 elves delivering a Christmas tree to Washington, D.C., and we’ve got a convoy.”

On Dec. 4, with Ben at the wheel honking “Jingle Bells” and hundreds of onlookers watching, he delivered the “People’s Tree” to the Capitol. 

Starting that year and following, transporting the Capitol Christmas Tree has become a national celebration for many small towns and people along the route to Washington. In the end, you could take Ben Nighthorse Campbell out of small-town America, but you couldn’t take his love of rural America and the common man out of him.

Greg Fulton is the president of the Colorado Motor Carriers Association, which represents more than 600 companies directly involved in, and affiliated with trucking in Colorado.