Historical marker in front of the tower: "In 1862-70, about a mile north of here Peter Larkin and Joe Stancliff used a stone house as a store from which ox teams pulled wagons up a 30% grade. The San Diego & Fort Yuma Turnpike Co. used the site as a toll road station until 1876. The crumbling house was replaced in 1917 by another still visible to its east, but road changes, beginning in 1878 and culminating in today's highway, have left the older stone house ruins inaccessible."