The site originally was developed by Rudolph Ulrich as the 40-acre (16 ha) formal park adjoining Hayes Mansion starting from approximately 1887.

[3]: 8–9 In 1887, tiring of the bucolic mining town atmosphere, Mary made plans to move to California, purchasing approximately 449 acres (182 ha) of farmland and a house from the Tennant family near the Edenvale station of the Southern Pacific Railroad, resettling there by November of that year.

[3]: 38  It was destroyed by fire on July 30, 1899;[3]: 46  as the family was undergoing significant financial distress, rebuilding the mansion did not start until 1902 and it was not completed until November 1905, four months after Mary had died.

[3]: 24 The 40-acre (16 ha) formal park was sold in 1959[3]: 74  to the Frontier Village Corporation, formed by Joseph Zukin, Hawley Smith, and Michael Khourie.

[9] The park closed its gates for the last time on September 28, 1980,[8] as the land had become surrounded by suburban sprawl and was purchased by the Bren Corporation for housing.

[10] All the buildings were removed from the amusement park; little is recognizable from the former Frontier Village, but items such as concrete boulders from the artificial river remain half-buried on the site.

It is a low, circular stone wall with round holes meant to evoke mortars used by the indigenous Native Americans, with a bridge leading towards the mansion over a wildflower moat.