REAL ESTATE
May 30, 2004 | Susan Sullivan, Special to The Times
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.