A 180-foot-tall "ponderosa pine" cell phone tower looms above its fellow trees just west of the RimRock Inn off the Lewiston Highway.

If you are heading north on Highway 3 toward Lewiston, just before you get to the RimRock Inn you might notice a really, really big pine tree towering above the other ponderosas off to the left. Its branches are a little short and a little stiff. Its DBH is about eight feet. And although at first glance it looks as like a world-class old-growth yellow pine has sprouted almost overnight, it’s really not a tree at all.

It’s a cell phone tower.

General contractor Doug Snyder began building the stealth tower in April. It went on line May 28. It’s one of many styles of Stealth Cell towers, which now are frequently disguised as trees, lighthouses, water towers, light poles, and even church steeples.

Built by Sky-Comm, Inc, of Vancouver, Washington, the U.S. Cellular tower transmits 4G data streams and voice LTE, or VoLTE, signals. It relays the signals it collects to Tollgate via a microwave antenna that looks like a strange, giant, metallic pine cone growing out of its west side. The tower will provide cell coverage for much of the North End of Wallowa County through US Cellular service or, for many (but not all) other carriers, extended service.