Milwaukee's official Christmas tree was donated by a 93-year-old former Milwaukee firefighter

This year's City of Milwaukee Christmas tree arrived at its new home, Deer District, after being harvested Tuesday morning.

The tree was donated by lifelong Milwaukee resident Erwin Boehme, 93, who said he planted the tree's seeds back in the mid-1980s on land he owned in Columbia County. When it grew to over a foot tall, he transferred it to the front yard of his Milwaukee home on North 58th Street. The Colorado Blue Spruce now stands at 31-feet-tall.

Earlier this year, Boehme said he thought the city might be interested in his tree and reached out. He was right.

"It's kind of amazing," Boehme said. "It's something that a person doesn't really expect — to have all of that notoriety."

This is the first time Deer District is hosting the city's tree.

"It is really exciting to have it at Deer District," said Dustin Godsey, chief marketing officer for the Bucks and Fiserv Forum. "We've been working to turn Deer District into Cheer District for the last few years, and this is just a really great centerpiece for us to be able to partner with the city and have the official tree here."

For several years, the city's Christmas tree has been on Market Street next to City Hall. It has also been on Wells Street near City Hall's main entrance and in Red Arrow Park.

Milwaukee's tradition of having an official city tree is the second-longest in the country, after New York's; it dates back to 1913.

On Tuesday, the Department of Public Works Forestry Services Division harvested the tree from Boehme's yard. It was a bittersweet morning for him.

"It was sad to see it taken away," Boehme said. "I just went out and looked at the empty spot. But they did a beautiful job. They took that tree out like they know what they're doing, and they put it on the flatbed and away they went."

The tree received a Milwaukee Police Department escort to its spot outside Fiserv Forum. The tree will be decorated by DPW Forestry staff.

Boehme served in the Army and as a firefighter

Boehme served in the U.S. Army from 1951-53 and fought in the Korean War. Afterward, he joined the Milwaukee Fire Department, where he retired in 1980.

In the mid-1980s, Boehme said he ordered Blue Spruce seeds from Colorado and planted about 500 of them in flats on his Columbia County property. His dad, Ernst, had been the City of Milwaukee Forestry Services arborist and taught him the craft, according to a news release.

Boehme intended to grow a nursery, but due to rainy and cold weather conditions, most of the seeds he planted didn't survive. But Boehme was able to salvage a few — including the one that would go on to become Milwaukee's Christmas tree.

He transferred it to the front yard of the Milwaukee home he had purchased in the '60s. That home is where Boehme and his late wife, Genevieve, raised their family.

"It grew in that spot ever since," Boehme said.

Cheer District festivities

The Milwaukee Christmas tree lighting, with the entire Deer District illuminated by We Energies, is scheduled for Nov. 18.

"It is a beautiful tree," Godsey said. "It is a great central piece to what we think will be a great holiday season down here at Deer District."

There will also be a Jack Daniel's barrel tree, and programming throughout the holiday season, including a Milwaukee Maker's Market from Dec. 9-11; breakfast with Santa Dec. 11 at The MECCA Sports Bar and Grill; and a Letters to Santa mailbox courtesy WLDB-FM (93.3), which not so coincidentally has been the first Milwaukee radio station to switch to all Christmas music every year since 2016.

A local beer made with parts of the tree

The city's Christmas tree will also once again be incorporated into a local brewery's beer.

This is the third year Black Husky Brewing will be using parts of Milwaukee's Christmas tree in its Sproose beer, said Tim Eichinger, who co-owns the brewery with Toni Eichinger. The brewery had been making beer with spruce for years before its partnership with the city.

The Milwaukee Christmas tree has to be prepped for cutting ahead of its harvest day, Eichinger explained.

"They have to trim up the trunk and take some of the branches off," he said. "And then we take those back to the brewery and then we actually put that in the beer."

Eichinger puts the branches with the needles on them in a mesh bag that gets boiled in the beer.

Eichinger plans to brew Sproose on Thursday. It will be available on Dec. 3 for purchase in cans, pints and special-release 22-ounce bottles. One dollar for every can and pint sold supports the Urban Forestry Fund, which encourages tree-planting projects across the city.

"It's just a fun thing to do," Eichinger said. "And you're also doing something to make sure that you're planting more trees. Coming from northern Wisconsin like myself, I've always had a real connection with trees. For us, this is a fun thing to do and it also keeps the legacy going."

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This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Milwaukee Christmas tree donated by former Milwaukee firefighter, 93