OFF SCREEN: Can you tell us a little bit about what was happening to that roof and why it was being repaired already?

BOWERS: I didn't get involved with the roof repair, so I really don't know what the condition was and what caused it to be necessary to be done.

The project I worked on primarily was to do equipment repair and to help in the construction of an electric highline from the outskirts of Fort Davis across the mountains to the Indian Lodge.

I hauled the poles from Marfa—they came to Marfa in a gondola car and we went over and hauled them over to the site and constructed the highline.

When it was completed, the foreman mentioned that he was going down to the first pole on the outskirts of Fort Davis to turn the power on.

I told him I would do it.

Of course, the switch was at the top of the pole.

He wanted to know if I had ever climbed a pole. I told him no, but that I was sure I could do it.

He gave me some advice that stood me in good stead.

He said after I put the hooks on and the belt— as I climbed up the pole, to keep my rear end as far away from the pole as I could get it which would position the spikes so that I could climb the pole, and when I got to the top, to be sure to use the safety belt rather than try to hang on with one line and turn the switch on with the other hand.

All of those instructions were good, and I followed them, I guess, because I had no mishap.

And so I turned the power on to the Indian Lodge in 1938.