Mt Grace, California - 1935

Click for full resolution!!!!!!!!

The year is 1935 and the nation is still under the grip on the Great Depression.  Although the area wasn't hit as hard as other parts of the US, Mount Grace and Mount Rose certainly felt its effects.  One thing that kept the towns from desolation and abandonment was Brady's Mine.

Mine!

Copper was discovered along the cliffs of the ridge to the east of town, and the area was renamed Copper Basin.  Copper was highly valued for use in electric wires, and more importantly, for pennies...which was the daily wage of many workers around the country.

The mine offered employment to many in the town, and many more from outside the town...spurring growth in a time of withering possibilities.

Got wood?

Dozens of shafts were drilled to allow the maximum amount of safety possible for the miners.

Vertical shafts are the best...

Since it was always dark in the mine, the foremen could keep miners working around the clock since they didn't know it was dark outside

The mine even had its own gas station!

Overview of Brady's Mine

Some of those that couldn't find work decided to try to live off the land.  Raul Valens climbed up Mt. Rose and discovered Lake Corazon. 

Lake Heart?

Although the Pomo knew about it for centuries, it was brand new to the residents of Mount Rose.

Good fishing...if you want to climb a couple thousand feet

Mt. Rose

Also in 1935, the area received the first and possibly most famous of it's residents.

The Great Depression affected not only the US, but countries around the world as well.  At the time, Princess Jillian of the Constitutional Monarchy of British Columbia was 3rd in line for the throne.  Rather than bide her time in waiting, she decided to move to Hollywood

Any similarities to Ingrid Bergman are purely coincidental

While there she fell in love with a young movie star named Nicolas Wilson

Ditto for Clark Gable...

She'd had enough of royalty and he'd had enough of Hollywood.  They searched for houses near LA and San Francisco, but didn't find anything they liked.  They found Mount Grace completely by accident, but became fast friends with the Miller brothers.  They quickly decided that the area was perfect for them; close enough to Hollywood to stay in touch, but far enough away that people wouldn't bother them.

Their chosen location to build their house was a ridge extending from Mt. Rose near Miller University called Pepper Ridge, named after the popular pepper farm tended by Paul Parker and his wife Patty.

Paul Parker pooh-poohed at panthers persistently picking off prized pigs, so Paul and his partner Patty planted peppers, and picked and pickled them patiently.  Picking peppers prepped the pair to be paranoid about people passing posts proclaiming their property.  The princess appeared to be a property procuring punk to the pepper picking pair, but she promoted the pastel pumpkin pie puree she had prepared platonically to the Parkers.  The princess procured the pristine property by proper protocol, and promptly picked the peppers and planted her pansies (perennials) and patiently planned her palace. 

Her new home, although extravagant, employed dozens of area builders and craftsmen.  Soon the mansion was finished and the famous couple moved in.

Peculiar placement for a palace...

The huge mansion wasn't enough for Princess Jillian.  She needed something that reminded her of home, and commissioned an enormous garden in the valley below the cliffs.

Too loud?

She promised that it would be a public park, so the city allowed her to build it.

The cost was huge, but employed dozens more for many more months, and provided a beautiful public park with spectacular views from Jillian's home.

The number of people employed to build Jillian's house made Kenny Miller think.  He hadn't been living at the home he grew up in because it was on the south side of the river.  He needed a place of his own, and his wealth allowed him to create a similar project for himself.

Having the two houses near each other unknowingly created a new neighborhood that would attract future wealthy residents and their enormous houses.

You can smell the elitism from here