How a Pewaukee auto shop owner got a cell tower that looks like an evergreen tree

Mike De Sisti, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
Updated ·2 min read

There's a saying that suggests “You can’t put lipstick on a pig,” but that hasn’t stopped Harrison Keyes from trying.

Like most of humanity, the 39-year old owner of Jerry’s Automotive Service on County Highway F, a few miles north of I-94 in Pewaukee, is not a fan of the aesthetics of cellular towers.

“I think honestly, cell towers are ugly,” said Keyes, who recently leased out a portion of his shop’s property to install a 120-foot tall cell tower. 

When Keyes was in talks with the company responsible for installing the tower, Bridger Tower Corporation, he remembered a trip he took to Hawaii where he saw a tower disguised as a tree wondered if they could install something similar.

A 120-foot-tall cell tower made to look like a pine tree at Jerry’s Automotive Service on County Highway F, a few miles north of I-94 in Pewaukee, on Tuesday, May 9, 2023. “I didn’t want to have to look at a cell tower every day, so I had them make it look like a tree”, said the owner of the business, Harrison Keyes.
A 120-foot-tall cell tower made to look like a pine tree at Jerry’s Automotive Service on County Highway F, a few miles north of I-94 in Pewaukee, on Tuesday, May 9, 2023. “I didn’t want to have to look at a cell tower every day, so I had them make it look like a tree”, said the owner of the business, Harrison Keyes.

“I almost didn’t see it because it looked like a pine tree,” Keyes said about the tree he saw on his trip.

“So I asked, ‘Could you make (it) like a pine tree?” He (the representative for Bridger Tower Corporation) said, “Yeah.’ So there it is.”

The branches, which were installed about in a day in early May, are metal and the needles are a plastic material, a lot like an artificial Christmas tree, explained Keyes.

“It's literally like a giant fake Christmas tree, I guess,” Keyes said with a chuckle.

“I mean, up close, it doesn't really look like a tree.” admits Keyes.” But he was more worried about how it looks from farther away, to drivers, for example, or to people who live nearby.

A 120-foot-tall cell tower made to look like a pine tree at Jerry’s Automotive Service on County Highway F, a few miles north of I-94 in Pewaukee, on Tuesday, May 9, 2023. “I didn’t want to have to look at a cell tower every day, so I had them make it look like a tree”, said the owner of the business, Harrison Keyes.
A 120-foot-tall cell tower made to look like a pine tree at Jerry’s Automotive Service on County Highway F, a few miles north of I-94 in Pewaukee, on Tuesday, May 9, 2023. “I didn’t want to have to look at a cell tower every day, so I had them make it look like a tree”, said the owner of the business, Harrison Keyes.

“There is a neighborhood over there. To them, it probably looks like a tree because all you see is the top, a little bit of it.”

The fake foliage has been piquing customers’ interests.

“We've been getting a lot of people coming in asking what it was. It's it's pretty obvious that it's new. And trees don't just grow overnight like that.”

While the tree tower has a fake holiday tree feel, Keyes and his colleagues at the auto shop only joke about decorating come Christmastime. However, the owner is adamant it will remain undecorated. "I'm not climbing up there," Keyes said.

This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: How Pewaukee shop got a cell tower that looks like an evergreen tree