Kyle McGhee, a renowned "crazy old coot" of the Wild West was one of the premier settlers of California, back in the mid 1840's. McGhee, who tragically died while being trampled to death by his horse, was loved like a father figure by all who met him. McGhee spent a large part of his life searching for the fabled Gold of Cortez , unaware that Cortez was predominantly in the Arizona and Mexico areas.

However, his lack of geography nonwithstanding, McGhee still sought to find his fortune on the West Coast. McGhee was a very liberal person, and embraced an early form of Communism in his mining town, where the miners shared a communal set of tools, and took turns cooking meals. It is rumored that Karl Marx himself may have been inspired by Old Man McGhee. Ironically enough, Kyle was later found to have been keeping all the gold for himself, and was subsequently trampled (although not to death) by an enraged drunken miner, attempting to steal his horse for payment.

McGhee was truly a founding father in many ways, having left his tools at home one day, and accidently finding Gold in a nearby creekbed while trying to catch fish with his bare hands. This discovery sparked the surge of settlers to what would become the greater San Francisco area.