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.