In the summer of 2005, I spent about a week searching the treasures at the Bowman Museum in Prineville. I came across a transcribed copy of an oral history of Fred Houston,Sr. The interview was dated October 28, 1984, a portion of which follows:
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"At East Wolf, there was a telephone line up the tree, so you could use the phone. I don't know whether that tree is still standing, or not... but it leans just a little bit, and you'd think the ladder would go right up he back side, but it goes up here and you've got to really hang on to climb it. And Barry's were up there. And their boy was less than three years old. They left him in the car... Barry and his wife did...and they both went up the tower. The tower had a floor around the top of the tree. And right on top of this was the fire finder. And then there was a two by four 'round it, to keep from falling out. And it was double around it. But they'd been up there awhile, and they heard a voice. They heard that boy of theirs, "Daddy, let me in." You can imagine how they felt when they realized their boy was hanging onto the ladder rungs. And they were wooden rungs. And here it was underneath, instead of sloping the other way. Barry crawled down, opened the lid, saw the boy, and went down to him. When he got to him, he stuck that boy to him to get him in. When they took him down, they put him into a backpack and packed him down. Florence said she never went into the tower again. That gave her a scare... enough that she wouldn't do it."
