Diversions : Rough Territory : History: Visitors can relive the final days of the Wild West at the Gilman Ranch Historic Park and Wagon Museum in Banning.

D esperate man. Take no chances!

So warned a 1909 “Wanted” poster for a young Paiute named Willie Boy accused of killing his girlfriend and her father in Banning.

“If this had happened out on the desert, it would probably have been just a quarrel between two families and not made national headlines,” says Harry Lawton, author of “Willie Boy: A Desert Manhunt.” “But President William Howard Taft was coming through Riverside on a campaign stop, and his nickname was Billie Boy, and Willie Boy’s nickname was actually Billie Boy,” explains Lawton, whose book was the basis for the movie “Tell Them Willie Boy Is Here.”

Because Taft’s visit coincided with the shootings and the nicknames were so similar, newspapers trumped up rumors of a presidential assassination plot.

The scene of the infamous slaying is open to the public at the Gilman Ranch Historic Park and Wagon Museum in Banning, on the road to Palm Springs.

The Gilman Ranch represents California history in a microcosm. The area at various times was home to the Cahuilla Indians, part of the Mission San Gabriel, a stagecoach stop and a successful ranch. Today, the highlights of the newest Riverside County park--which just opened last month--are its wagon museum and Old West ruins.

But the ranch is perhaps best known in connection with the Willie Boy incident.

When James Gilman bought the land in 1869, the New Hampshire entrepreneur literally acquired a piece of California history. The land included the area’s first adobe dwelling, built in 1854, which became the Gilman family home and a stage stop along the still-visible Bradshaw Trail.

Gilman’s family continued to live in the adobe until their new home was ready in 1879. Today, there are only the ruins of the collapsed adobe and the foundation of another Gilman house, destroyed by fire in 1977.

Gilman eventually shifted from cattle ranching to farming and fruit production, planting olive trees.

“We’ve discovered labels and recipes for the olive oil he supplied to San Francisco restaurants,” says Diana Seider, Riverside County historian.

It was close to Gilman’s olive-curing sheds in the nearby bunkhouse that Willie Boy stole the Winchester he used to kill Old Mike and possibly Lolita and himself.

“We don’t really know whether Willie Boy struggled with the father or whether he shot him, as newspaper accounts said, while he was sleeping,” says Lawton, a creative writing lecturer at UC Riverside. He retraced much of the 500-mile, three-week manhunt across the Mojave Desert with the help of Joe Toutain, one of the last surviving members of the first posse and a friend of Willie Boy.

“The posse found Lolita’s body, but there was no evidence that Willie Boy shot her,” says Lawton. Although the author believes Willie Boy took his own life, the film version has Robert Blake’s Willie Boy finally stopped by deputy sheriff Cooper, played by Robert Redford.

Although some of the facts surrounding the incident may never be known, Gilman Ranch lets history buffs relive the final days of the Wild West. Visitors can stroll the grounds.

The Western frontier comes alive with the museum’s collection of authentic wagons, including an overland stagecoach, “prairie schooner,” chuck wagon and covered wagon. Many of the vehicles, donated by the Banning Wagon Museum, carry original wood and hardware.

“We’ll be conserving rather than restoring the wagons; stabilizing them so they don’t deteriorate,” says museum assistant Mari Ruiz. “Since most of the wagons haven’t been touched, we can tell a lot about how they were built and their original colors.”

Visitors experience the grueling journey west through the diary entries of a Kansas newlywed. On May 26, 1857, Helen McCowen Carpenter set off with 17 others, five wagons, horses and cattle. “At last we are on the way,” she begins her travel log, “only 7 miles from home, which is to be no longer; with good luck, we may someday reach the promised land, California.” Five months later, numbed by bitter cold and constant concern over food and water, Carpenter’s party arrived in Sacramento.

As if travel by covered wagon wasn’t adventure enough, many braved the trip west by stagecoach. “Hell on wheels” is how one man described the ordeal in a Los Angeles newspaper account.

Driving a stage was also a dangerous undertaking. Overcrowding was often a problem, with as many as 14 people crowded onto a stage with their 25-pound trunks and several bags of mail. The pistol and rifle used by a driver and his guard are on display, along with a Wells Fargo trunk that carried gold and bullion from Sacramento to San Francisco.

Mark Twain was among those who rode out west by stagecoach. As Twain describes in his fictionalized account, “Roughing It,” he was forced to ship his trunk back to St. Louis and take only the necessities. “It was a sad parting,” Twain writes. “. . . no stove-pipe hats nor patent-leather boots, nor anything else necessary to make life calm and peaceful.”

Creature comforts often had to be abandoned on route. “People packed pianos, china, player organs and wardrobes,” says Ruiz. “By the time they reached the Rockies, they had to lighten the load, resulting in a virtual graveyard of furniture and clothing.”

While many headed west for land and gold, others traveled in the opposite direction. “Once gold was discovered along the Colorado River at La Paz, a lot of people went east from Los Angeles and San Bernardino to Arizona,” says Seider.

According to Seider, crossing the desert was made possible by the Bradshaw Trail, which began as a quick, safe route for shipping goods.

William Bradshaw, an adventurer from North Carolina, learned about centuries-old trails from the Cahuilla Indians. Wells and pools linked the trails, allowing travelers safe passage through the barren terrain.

With the advent of the railroad in the 1880s, California became a romantic vacation spot for Midwesterners. “Oranges for health, California for wealth” read one popular slogan. A hotel carriage that took tourists from the railroad station to various hotels and resorts is featured. There’s also the status symbol of the times--a black surrey with red fringe.

The Riverside County Parks Department plans to add trails, monthly walks and interpretive programs.

Gilman Ranch Historic Park and Wagon Museum is in Banning, about 30 minutes west of Palm Springs. From California 60 (Pomoma Freeway), take the Sunset exit north to Wilson Street. Turn right and go to the corner of Wilson and 16th streets. Open Saturday and Sunday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Admission: $3 for adults and $1.50 for children 12 and under. For information, call (714) 922-9200.