WWII veteran dubbed 'Texas Shipyard Tarzan' lived in a tree house in Texas for $4 per week The young veteran lived on $4 a week, saving up to move to Alaska

The ex-soldier had had a hard time finding somewhere to live in the area so he took to the trees just two miles from work. He had been discharged from the service that past September. The ex-soldier had had a hard time finding somewhere to live in the area so he took to the trees just two miles from work. He had been discharged from the service that past September. Photo: Getty Photo: Getty Image 1 of / 20 Caption Close WWII veteran dubbed 'Texas Shipyard Tarzan' lived in a tree house in Texas for $4 per week 1 / 20 Back to Gallery

In April 1944, Paramount News cameras came to Houston to document the living situation of one George Witters, a young World War II veteran living in a forest like a “Texas Shipyard Tarzan.”

When Witters, 25, wasn’t working the overnight shift at a nearby shipyard as a welder, he lived in a treehouse, hence the Tarzan angle taken by narrator Jerry Macy.

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Apparently Witters’ story was of national interest, as news syndicate UPI even caught up with him for a story that same month.

The ex-soldier had a hard time finding a place to live in the area so he took to the trees just two miles from work. He had been discharged from the service that past September.

“There is really nothing complicated about tree living if you approach it with determination,” Witters said.

Around this time, a year or so before the end of the war, many enlisted men were coming back to the United States, looking for work and housing. Many of those were returning injured or otherwise forever changed.

Witters told reporters he had been discharged from the U.S. Army due to ill health after being assigned to Fort Sill.

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According to UPI, his home was a 9-foot-long tent, about 45 feet above the ground, anchored on a platform. He only had to climb 30 feet up – taking the first half up a ladder before climbing the rest of the way – to get home. He cooked his meals on a hearth-like brick oven he constructed on the ground below, which apparently would have been somewhere near the Houston Ship Channel.

If the landowner wasn’t charging Witters rent for living in that tree, he was probably able to save a great deal of money at the time. No rent, no utility bills.

He told UPI that his weekly expenses were around $4 and that he saved money on bus rides to work by actually running to work.

“My living expenses are about $4 a week and they wouldn’t be anything if I didn’t have to buy groceries,” Witters said

Witters made do with old Army supplies and got water for cooking and cleaning at a nearby lake. He surrounded the area with barbed wire and posted a “KEEP OUT” sign to ward off uninvited guests.

UPI reported that the former Louisiana State University student had studied zoology and biology among other sciences at the Baton Rouge school before the Army came calling in 1941.

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The St. Louis Post-Dispatch called the tree-dwelling scheme “The Witters Plan.”

“The Witters Plan, as it deserves to come to be known, is a postwar program, a during-the-war program, a design for living and just a real good idea, all rolled into one,” the paper wrote.

“Lest it be thought that Mr. Witters is a feckless fellow, with no thought of the morrow, it should be mentioned that he has long-range plans. He means to live in the tree until the war is over. Then he intends to go to Alaska and make his living by catching fish,” the paper continues. Witters told reporters that his wages not spent on groceries were going into war bonds he was hoping to later cash in to buy a boat.

It's not known if he made it to Alaska after all.

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If Mr. Witters is still alive today, he is nearly 100 years old.

The tale of Witters is somewhat similar to the 1974 film “The Crazy World of Julius Vrooder,” starring a young Timothy Bottoms and directed by Arthur Hiller, whob just a few years beforeb had scored an Oscar nomination for 1970’s “Love Story.”

The main character, a young Vietnam War vet, escapes a veteran’s hospital and lives in an underground cellar next to a highway. He is able to siphon electricity and phone service and lives fairly inventively, eventually falling in love with his doctor’s fiance. It was one of the first films to take a frank look at post-traumatic stress disorder among Vietnam vets.

Craig Hlavaty is a reporter for Chron.com and HoustonChronicle.com. He's an intolerable native Texan with too much ink in his skin and too much brisket stuck in his teeth.