The following is the story of the legend of Joaquin Murieta, the celebrated bandit of the California Gold Rush, and the author credited with creating the myth of Joaquin, John Rollin Ridge of Grass Valley.oooHis name was Cheesquatalawny. He lived in Grass Valley. He died young at the age of 40, but what he did changed American popular culture to this day. In the quiet Greenwood Cemetery, near Lyman Gilmore School, there is a row of markers for the Ridge Family. Most prominent among them is the stone for John Rollin Ridge, one of the most interesting and influential figures …