MENIFEE --- Once in a while, Ruby Rehder thinks maybe she hears him out in the barn.

Occasionally in the quiet of a country evening, when the rat-a-tat-tat from the sea of tract homes under construction nearby has ceased, it's said the muffled moans of gold miners trapped beneath the surface will catch a breeze and travel over the open fields that remain.

The portion of the community of Menifee that lies west of Interstate 215 is still a place where a paved road can quickly turn into a dirt road and then no road at all.

It's just off one of those roads that stands the house and barn that gold prospector and mine operator Luther Menifee Wilson built in the 1880s.

The property's history is almost all anecdotal -- "hearsay" one former property owner called it -- passed on for generations by the home's owners and neighbors.

Written records of that era for that part of Southwest County are few.

The homes and farms built not long after Wilson first came to the area in the 1880s looking for and finding gold were spread far and wide across the valley that eventually bore his name.

Ruby Rehder bought the Wilson home and property two years ago with profits made selling land she'd purchased a decade ago off Antelope Road.

Wilson's house, built about 130 years ago, was originally about 600 square feet. Over the years, additions have brought the home up to its current 1,650 square feet. Previous owners added a master bedroom and bath, a family room and a carport.

"It has just kind of evolved into a beautiful house," she said.

A property divided

Wilson's original farm was about 200 acres, but over the years the land has been divided and then subdivided.

The lot Rehder purchased is 5.9 acres and includes horse stables, a pond that is home to 200 mallard ducks and a barn with a corrugated tin roof that has stood for about 120 years.

About 50 yards from the barn is the original assayer's office, where prospectors brought their precious metals to have their worth determined. A fence dividing Rehder's and her neighbors' properties runs through the almost dilapidated building that straddles the line between Rehder's property and neighboring land.

Rehder said she bought the property without knowing the history.

"It was advertised as a historical property," she said. "I decided to come take a look. I pulled into the driveway and knew this was it."

Rehder's house is filled with antique furniture and fixtures, some older than the house itself, that the avid collector has acquired.

"I've had all of these things for many years," she said pointing to various chairs, tables and pictures. "I just needed a place to put them. This was the place."

Even if from time to time there are some unexplained sounds in the air.

"I swear I know somebody else is here besides me," she said.

Who was Luther Menifee Wilson?

There is not a lot known about Wilson and his ranch.

Betty Bouris, a longtime Menifee resident, local historian and co-author of the book "Images of America -- Menifee Valley" said she does not know much about the house and barn.

There is scant mention of Wilson, his house or the barn in the book.

Some of what is known about the gold prospector is found in historian Steve Lech's comprehensive book on the region -- "Along the Old Roads."

Born in Kentucky in 1845, Wilson came to the northern section of what was then San Diego County in about 1880 to prospect for minerals.

"He found gold quartz and quickly secured mining claims around what was termed the 'Menifee Quartz Lode,'" Lech wrote.

Wilson staked a number of claims in the area and dug several mines, including the King Wilson and Alice mines.

According to a map of San Diego County -- the area became Riverside County in 1893 -- the Menifee Quartz Lode straddled present day Murrieta Road, just north of Holland Road, which is where Rehder's house and barn are located.

Other prospectors came to what became known as Menifee Valley and "found a fair amount of gold quartz," Lech wrote.

Another historical account of the region said Wilson realized about $18,000 from the mine before he sold the property in 1889.

Still another account states Wilson married and had two sons. His wife left him and moved to the Mohave Desert where she ran a hotel. Wilson is said to have died in 1899 at his home in Winchester from the effects of acute alcoholism.

Talking to neighbors

Tom de la Garrigue owned the Wilson property for 18 years beginning in the 1980s.

"I didn't know the history when I bought it," he said. "I just liked it. I have a grading business and it was big enough to park my equipment."

Like Rehder, de la Garrigue talked with the previous owners and soon discovered the property's past.

"The woman I bought it from lived in the house for a long time," he said. "I don't know for sure if Wilson built the barn, but I'm sure he built the house."

One of the neighbors told de la Garrigue that after the gold mines were closed, the neighborhood kids used to go swimming in one of the shafts that had flooded.

Others told him about a flood in another shaft, one that ran deep underground between the Wilson house and barn, that killed several Chinese workers brought in to work the gold mine.

"They never got them out," de la Garrigue said. "They're still down there. At least that's the story I heard. It's really all hearsay."

The mines have all been filled in, Rehder said.

It was de la Garrigue who did much of the expansion and modernization of the house. He eventually sold the property to a married couple who later sold it to Rehder.

If barns could talk

The sign above the door on the old barn -- Menifee Quartz Lode -- isn't old at all.

"Tom (de la Garrigue) put that up in the 1980s," Rehder said. "He also built an extension onto the barn where he could park his Corvette."

However, other than a few modifications, the dirt floor horse barn looks pretty much as it must have looked in the late 1800s.

Rehder said she's been approached by a few historians wanting her to register the house and barn as historical structures.

"They've wanted me to sign this over but I haven't," she said. "Then, they could tell me what to do with it."

For now, at least, as Menifee Valley continues to grow, with an incorporation election set for next year that could bring cityhood to the community of about 65,000, the house its namesake built and the land around it will remain much as it was when Menifee Wilson called it home.

Contact staff writer John Hunneman at (951) 676-4315, Ext. 2603, or hunneman@californian.com.