Benjamin Briggs made a fortune growing fruit trees in central California. Some say he launched the state's citrus industry. It looked like he had it all – until his wife died of tuberculosis.

Filmmaker John Newcombe, whose documentary "Rancho La Canada: Then and Now" tells the tale of Briggs, says the farmer abandoned his trees and became a doctor.

"Briggs became obsessed with the idea of curing tuberculosis. He started to search for the perfect climate where he could build a sanitarium and heal tubercular patients."

Briggs found that climate in La Canada, where he built a sanitarium. He also built a house at the top of the street that now bears his name. And as he looked out over the trees fanned out like a crescent below, he named the area "La Crescenta."

Briggs' story has an unhappy ending. At the age of 66, he decided to undergo an operation to remove a bullet from an old wound he'd suffered long ago. Briggs had lived for decades with that bullet lodged near his spine. He did not live through the operation to take it out.

(Airdate: 3/15/2009)