Independent from an early age, Louise Grantham moved from Ohio to California in her twenties and, without training or experience, became a prospector. In 1929, she leased land from Bob Thompson, a local Timbisha Shoshone man whose ancestral homeland included the springs, then after signing a five year lease and making just one payment, she sued him for ownership. While the legal battle continued, she occupied the site and posted an armed watchman against trespassers. The courts eventually supported Thompson's claim, but for over a year efforts to evict Grantham, including federal marshals enforcing a court order, failed because she refused to comply. Thompson eventually walked away from his claims, and Grantham assumed total ownership and operated the most successful talc mine in the region until her death in 1969. Legal battles and outright hostility were common between prospectors and landowners, especially when fortunes were at stake. Talc, a soft white mineral added to paint, cosmetics, ceramics, and paper, boomed with the onset of World War I, and by 1960 this region produced around 25% of the nation's talc. For a time, the Warm Springs Talc Mines were the most successful in the West.