The Walbridge Fire destroyed many homes and structures in the area, including the Venado Post Office and Daniels School.

Batchellor was a mining engineer turned fruitgrower, who settled in the area in the early 1900s after working in Cuba and Mexico.

Daniels is a one-room school, measuring 284 square feet, and had one female teacher who taught first through eighth grades, but closed in 1951 due to lack of students.

Gray Creek begins at about 1,400 feet on the southeastern slopes of Vulture Ridge(1,481 feet), first flowing southeasterly, it parallels the north side of Mill Creek Road, as it passes Venado less than a mile from its headwaters, drains through a culvert to the south side of the road, then curves around the east and south ridges of Rabbit Knoll, as it changes to a southwesterly course, and flows down a steep-sided V-shaped canyon vegetated mainly by bay trees.

Mill Creek begins at about 1,400 feet on the northeastern slopes of Vulture Ridge, first flowing around the ridge's eastern spur, it proceeds down steep U-shaped Pickle Canyon in a southeasterly direction, before paralleling Mill Creek Road, passing Daniels School, and adding four major tributaries, draining a basin of approximately 24 square miles.

Tan oak, alder, bay and redwoods forest the drainage area, and the federally protected northern spotted owl is listed by the California Department of Fish and Game as occurring in the Mill Creek watershed.