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In 1998, El Niño storms made much of Highway One impassable for months. Phone service to residents of Big Sur was sometimes unreliable. CCLK chairman John O'Neil suggested to State Parks and the Cellular One (now AT&T) phone company that an emergency cell site at Pt. Sur might be of benefit to residents and the hundreds of highway workers laboring without phone communications all along the coast. It was such a success, that the phone company funded the replica water tower which now houses the new cell site. That too was completed in early 2001.

The original tower was built in 1907 to store water high enough to provide water pressure for the new flush toilets installed in the 3rd floor of the Assistant Keepers' Quarters. The redwood supports for the original tower were milled in Big Sur of local lumber. Lumber large enough for supports for the replica tower could be found at only one lumber mill in California in 2000. That mill is in Northern California.