About Us

Mark Lynn  Smith and Paul Spaulding Smith are brothers who started growing Fraser Fir Christmas trees just out of college in 1980.  Mark and Paul were both chemistry majors in college. In 1980, Mark was a chemist with Baxter Pharmaceutical International and Paul was a Presbyterian minister working full - time as an Associate Pastor in Hendersonville, N.C. He was there for almost eleven years. In 1991 he became tentmaker minister for 17 years, growing a congregation and growing trees at the same time.   Over the years, two acres of Fraser Fir in 1980 has grown to 400 acres in 2008.

Since 2008, Paul is the full- time President of Cool Springs Nursery but is still involved in ministry on a volunteer basis. Phil Hobart is the farm Field Manager  and Jason Spradling is our Sales Manager.  We have anywhere from ten to seventy employees working on the farm during the year.

Mark  is a director at Baxter International and is in charge of Global Logistics and distribution at the largest intravenous solutions manufacturing plant in the world. He has expertise in shipping that helps Cool Springs Nursery domestically and internationally. Mark is charge of shipping doing all of our logistics and shipping during November. We are known for our on- time scheduling and delivering exactly what you order with no shortages or changes in addition to delivering the almost perfect Christmas tree.

Cool Springs Nursery is known in the industry for its high quality trees. It is known by other Christmas tree growers for its cutting edge cultural practices and use of mechanization. We are a research cooperator with North Carolina State University and are currently working on several experiments on our farm which include the use of “deep phosphors trenching” to meet phosphorus requirements and also a project to use “clover” to supply the nitrogen requirements of Fraser Fir Christmas Trees.

Mark is married to Carolyn and they are dog and exercise enthusiasts. Mark even at the age of 52 road bikes competitively and came in first in the grueling and famous 100 mile Bridge to Bridge ride at Grandfather Mountain last year beating over 400 other riders many in their 20’s and 30’s.   Carolyn is deeply involved in the farm and also has a keen interest in retailing antiques, road bikes, dogs and running.

Paul is married to Serena and they have four children. Three are adults and they are all athletes and runners. Douglas the oldest  just got married last summer, he was captain of the UNC-Chapel Hill Track Team  and joined the Navy’s pilot officier training after graduation.   He now lives and works in Washington D.C. as a health care consultant for Mercer.  Katharine is a sales manager in a bio-tech firm and will marry Jason Spradling in June.   Nathaniel is biology major at UNC-Chapel Hill and is majoring in biology and loves mountain biking, skiing and anything outdoors.    Mary Chesnut is the youngest and just got her drivers license(watch out for the girl in the brown suburban with 325,000 miles on it), she is a passionate soccer player and runner just came in second in the State Finals in the 800 and the mile.  Serena is a mother, photography enthusiast, architect and loves scrapbooking, skiing, tennis and Sunday soccer with local college students and Hispanic players.  Paul enjoys being involved in the church, skiing,  working out and an occasionally golf and tennis game.