In 1978 an unknown grant was received in Preston for the creation of oral histories. Forty-seven individuals or groups were interviewed by Sandra Wheeler or Jeff Karlson. (They were not individuals who were connected to Preston.) The interviews were originally recorded on cassettes tapes. The Preston Historical Society obtained a grant from the Minnesota Historical Society to have them transcribed. They were stored until 2022 when the Collections Committee of the Preston Historical Society was able to make them available to the public.
Using funds from the Preston Area Community Foundation, the tapes were converted to a digital format. The original tapes are now available on a thumb drive and in printed volumes available for loan from the Preston Public Library.