"The Mouse and the Douglas-fir cone"

This is how you tell a Douglas-fir cone from other cones! Many of the awe-inspiring, majestic Douglas-fir trees in Bowness Park have trunk diameters of over four feet, and tower over 100 feet high. They are 400-500 years old. The hyphen in the common name indicates that Douglas-firs are not true firs; i.e. they are not members of the genus Abies.

Oban's Myths & Legends:

"The Mouse and the Douglas-Fir Cone
Retold by:
Claralynn Nunamaker
Laytonville California

Long, long ago there lived a mouse in the forest.

The mouse was fearful all day and all night, for the sly fox always tried to catch him and eat up him.

The mouse was very clever and was able to hide from the fox for a long, long time. But one day, he let his attention wander, and before he knew it, the fox was right there!

The mouse was very scared and ran off as fast as he could. But he knew the fox was faster, so frantically he searched for a place to hide.

He spied a cone that he thought was big enough to hide him, so he scurried inside. Well, he was hidden well enough that the fox couldn't find him, but really the cone was too small.

And to this day, you can see the hind legs and the tail of the mouse sticking out from the Douglas-fir cone, where he is STILL hiding from the fox!

The End"
(Taken from www.planetozkids.com)

A Californian Native American myth explains that each of the three-ended bracts are a tail and two tiny legs of the mice who hid inside the scales of the tree's cones, which was kind enough to be the enduring sanctuary for them during forest fires. (From Wikipedia).