Poorly educated, he had a gift for verse and showmanship, and he used his experiences in the far west as material for both his poetry and touring presentations.

[7] He planted the surrounding trees and he personally built, on the eminence to the north, his own funeral pyre (eventually used to scatter his previously cremated ashes),[8] and monuments dedicated to Moses, explorer General John C. Frémont, and the poets Robert and Elizabeth Barrett Browning.

[9] Beginning in 1894, the Japanese poet Yone Noguchi worked as a laborer in exchange for room and board while living in the cabin adjoining Miller's.

Though he referred to Miller as "the most natural man", Noguchi found his years living there difficult and later fictionalized his experience in his book The American Diary of a Japanese Girl.

[3][4] The simple Victorian style house is also listed on the National Register of Historic Places on October 15, 1966.

The landmarked area is 14 acres (5.7 ha) in size, and includes the house and the various monuments erected by Miller.