This series of pictures of old Southern California were made by Thomas Milholland using the technology of the 1880s in which the photographer had to mix all his own chemicals and prepare the glass plate negative in a dark room on his wagon.

Milholland lived in Valle Vista and traveled on many five-day trips to various areas to ply his trade.

A major trip with his horse-drawn laboratory was to the gold fields to make this week’s picture!

At first glance the picture looks like almost any chaparral-covered hillside in Southern California.

Looking closely, one sees a squiggly road at the base of the hill to the left and a long, even grade going out of the picture to the right with at least three rigs traveling on it and the label "Banner Grade" on the lower left.

‘So what?’ you might say, because there is nothing visible to make an itinerant photographer go on a five-day trip to take the picture.

You are right! But it is historical and interesting to learn the rest of the story.

Milholland went there on an assignment by the builder of the toll road from the desert floor to Julian because he was proud of what he had wrought and was willing to pay for the photographer’s effort.

In 1869 five ex-Confederate soldiers were in Temecula wondering what to do when they decided to go prospecting in the Laguna Mountains south of the Warner ranch because they had heard of gold being found by A.L. Coleman in a creek bed.

The soldiers were cousins from the Bailey and Julian families of Georgia; they filed claims and homesteaded on the site that became the town of Julian because "Bailey" didn’t sound right.

They struck gold at a mine south of town but it petered out soon so they subdivided their homestead and sold city lots. By that time the Gold Rush was on and miners were streaming into town every day.

Both Yanks and Rebels were there and Civil War feelings still ran high but they learned to get along.

About seven miles south and east of Julian, a rich find was made and the owner marked Advertisement
the site with an American flag.

The site was thereafter called Banner and a mining town, Banner City, was built there with more than 40 buildings and a tent city of about 300 shacks and tents.

The Banner City-Julian area boasted more than 80 claims. Most were not productive but the estimated value of the gold extracted is more than $5 million at $16 per ounce, or $300 million at today’s prices.

The switchback road pictured about 1890 was built as a toll road in 1871. As you can see, it must have been a heartbreaking job with picks and shovels, black powder and horses in the near-desert climate.

Banner was washed out by the same storm that killed the Temecula-Oceanside railroad in 1883 but the town was partially rebuilt.

Another storm in 1916 finished the job of washing the town off the hill. Today we only find a couple buildings where the squiggle in the road was.

The only reason to go there now is to sample great apple pie in Julian, which remains as a town, and to drive to Borrego for wildflowers in the spring.

The grade is now part of Highway 78 and is a favorite of motorcycle riders.

If you have pictures such as this or if you recognize the site, 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 identifies the subject of the picture.

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.

The May 11 speaker will be Bill Irwin, who lived in Murrieta Hot Springs when Alive Polarity owned the property.

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

He sends his thanks to all who have responded to the past articles.

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

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