Menifee Ca

In the southwestern Riverside County community of Menifee, miles of dirt roads still crisscross the dusty valley. But the area has begun a period of explosive growth, with developers snapping up swaths of rolling, boulder-studded grain fields and transforming them into a sea of houses. Gold boom, housing bust Menifee traces its history back 125 years to a minor Gold Rush triggered by quartz miner Luther Menifee Wilson, followed by decades of dry farming, said local historian Thomas Patterson.

In the southwestern Riverside County community of Menifee, miles of dirt roads still crisscross the dusty valley. But the area has begun a period of explosive growth, with developers snapping up swaths of rolling, boulder-studded grain fields and transforming them into a sea of houses. Gold boom, housing bust Menifee traces its history back 125 years to a minor Gold Rush triggered by quartz miner Luther Menifee Wilson, followed by decades of dry farming, said local historian Thomas Patterson.