After Parker died in 1911, one of his daughters, Linda Parker Birdsong, lived in Star House until 1957. The Army was demolishing buildings to expand Fort Sill but agreed to move Star House to an empty lot in Cache. However, as Mr. Gipson explained on his tour, the Parkers had relied on a well and an outhouse; without those on the small lot, Ms. Birdsong had to move in with relatives.

Mr. Gipson’s uncle Herbert Woesner bought Star House and moved it to his 250-acre property; he added other historic buildings — including the home of the outlaw Frank James — and, in 1960, opened Eagle Park, an amusement park, there. Soaring insurance costs closed Eagle Park in 1985, Mr. Gipson said, yet Mr. Woesner regaled tourists with Parker’s story until he died in 2008. He left the property to Mr. Gipson and Mr. Gipson’s sister, Ginger. But maintaining old wooden buildings is costly, and the house has been on Oklahoma’s list of Most Endangered Historic Places since 2007.

Mr. Gipson is willing to give tours only if visitors show up around 2 p.m. and wait for him to close up his roadside diner, gas station and trading post. It would be easy to drive past the rusted trading post and Eagle Park signs thinking this is an abandoned site. The trading post was closed when I first arrived because Mr. Gipson was next door, toiling in the diner’s kitchen as he has since his mother died a few years ago.

After I bought a few postcards (I was his only customer of the day) and waited and waited, we finally drove past the ruins of Eagle Park to reach the Star House, and Mr. Gipson, who had been taciturn, became a genial and chatty guide.

Before the flooding, the major concern was the roof, or what was left of it. In the spring the Comanche Nation brought in a contractor to evaluate the cost of repairs, which the tribe would have paid for, according to Will Owens, tribal administrator. “We just really want to preserve it,” he said.

Meanwhile, a frustrated Mr. Coffey was contemplating building a replica Star House on Comanche property nearby to serve as a bed-and-breakfast and to educate people about Parker. “That was the only alternative I had,” he said, adding that he has always consulted with Parker’s descendants about each potential decision.

Mr. Gipson sees his heritage as caretaker of Star House — his family has owned it nearly as long as the Parkers did — and it pains him to know he can’t do right by it. He asked that I not take close-up photos of the house because dressers, rugs and mattresses were dragged onto the porch to dry or be disposed of.