This series of 54 pictures taken about 1890 by Thomas Milholland go a long way in showing how life was in those days.

In this week’s photo are a couple of men standing in a rough unplowed field.

My first attitude was "So what?" but this one has some history attached which sparked my interest.

On the back of the photo is the legend "Alice Mine 1894 – L. Menifee Wilson in the foreground Oscar Carson at the windlass."

Luther Menifee Wilson was born in Kentucky and came to this area about 1880 after the railroads connected California with the Eastern states.

Wilson was a miner who wasn’t very successful at mining; however, he was successful in producing children.

Many Wilsons claim him as their great-grandfather and he had two – possibly three – wives and eight children.

He is recognized as the guide who showed Helen Hunt Jackson around when she was gathering information about the local tribes for her story "Ramona."

Wilson was successful in finding paying mines a few times, but his generosity with strangers and his proclivity for hard liquor kept him broke.

He died in 1899 of alcoholism.

Son Mike portrayed his dad in the first few "Ramona" plays in Hemet dressed as an explorer in buckskins. His other children disowned him.

As a pioneer in the Hemet area, Wilson explored nearly every rock pile around and filed dozens of claims.

He discovered the Menifee Quartz Lode near the intersection of Murrieta and Holland roads in Menifee Valley, which was named for him.

In this picture he is staking Advertisement

[ Berry-Bell and Hall Mortuary ] a claim for what he hoped was the mother lode.

Staking a claim entailed stacking up several rocks into a monument at each corner of the claim and registering the claim with the county.

Since Riverside County was less than a year old in 1894, finding the right official to register with must have been difficult.

Getting the information to jibe with the survey of the official records probably proved problematical.

I have no idea who Oscar Carlson was but he was doing hard work in cranking the windlass to bring ore (or just rock) up out of the pit.

They were obviously camping in a waterless semi-desert, maybe Diamond Valley or Menifee Valley, which both looked like this as late as the 1930s when my dad and uncles prospected as a hobby.

If you have pictures such as this or if you recognize the site or the people, please call Bill McBurney at (951) 304-3417 or e-mail billmcb2@msn.com.

The Temecula Valley Historical Society (TVHS) will award a copy of their new DVD, "Early Boom Town Temecula," to the person who best explains the picture site and subjects.

The TVHS meets the second Monday of each month from 6 to 8 p.m. at the Pujol schoolhouse on Santiago St. in Temecula. The public is invited to attend.

McBurney is also interested in helping people to scan and preserve their old pictures. "History should be saved," he says.

Bill McBurney is a retired Navy Commander who was born in Hemet in 1928 and raised in the Auld Valley, Winchester and Fallbrook.