"Was that tree always there?" That was the question I asked myself earlier this month as I walked out of the radio station. I've been working at our studios at 4010 Summitview for the past 20 plus years, so the "skyline" that I had seen almost every day for decades looked different. It wasn't until the next day that crews started working on the tree again, and I realized that it was no tree, but a "Decepticon"... a cell tower in disguise!

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The Pine Tree Cell Tower
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At first glance, you really don't notice the parts that are clearly NOT TREE. In fact, when I asked co-workers, most of them didn't really notice it until they saw construction crews working on it. A fellow on-air broadcaster, Ryder, told me how he saw the tree with only half the branches, and thought they were cutting it down, until the next day he noticed the tree was full of pine branch glory.

Is this Part of the Beautification of Yakima Project?

After I realized what it was, I thought it was neat and looked into the project that the Downtown Yakima Association was doing about the maintenance and beautification project. Nope, this is not part of that. I did get a chance to talk to one of the construction workers who was handling the project. The only real info he gave me was how they're trying to disguise more and more cell towers, just so they don't look so ugly and not so much of an eye sore in the middle of the city. He told me how in California and Oregon (where he was from) those towers are disguised as palm trees. I asked him if the trees have a power outlet built into them so that they can be decorated come Christmas time. He laughed and said, he didn't know, but that would be cool.

The Pine Tree Cell Tower Work
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More Tower Trees In Yakima?

I've been keeping my eyes open, but I haven't seen any other pine trees that look like this. If you have spotted one of these Cell Towers in the wild, drop us a chat using the Station App. I'd love to know and take some pictures. If you do not know how to use the App Chat feature, I have a handy YouTube tutorial below that will show you step by step how to message us.

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I know more and more of these cell towers are going to be popping up and are going to be harder to spot. That's good and bad. I can just see some love sick person getting electrocuted while trying to carve his and his crush's name surrounded by a heart into the side of a bazillion volt cellphone tower tree. That would suck, but maybe, just maybe, I'll get better reception when I drive down 40th ave. Only time will tell.

Bald Guy Checking His Phone
tsm/Timmy!
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If you want to see a closer look at the tree, including the BASE, check out the photo gallery below, and note: NO TRESPASSING OCCURRED while I was getting these pictures. I stayed behind the fence, so I was safe from the tree, and the tree was safe from me building a club house in it.

Cell Towers Designed To Be Less Ugly

With more and more cell towers being put up around cities, they are now being designed to blend in. This cell tower was built in a way, that for a couple days, I really was confused... "Was that tree always there?"

 

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