Escape the San Joaquin Valley Heat and Visit Fresno's Famous Landmark
If you've ever been to Fresno, California in the summer, you are perfectly aware of just how excruciatingly hot it can get in the San Joaquin Valley. And this was no different back in the early 1900s either, of course. That is the era in which a certain rather eccentric Sicilian immigrant by the name of Baldasare Forestiere found his way to the area and began with the excavation of his fantastic underground home. That's right, underground.
Not really a garden in the usual sense, though several plants and fruit trees grow out and up through holes in the surface, Forestiere spent 40 years digging through the rock-hard hardpan by hand to create this unique, 10 acre network of cool, underground rooms, archways and passages. Though originally an experiment of sorts, the Forestiere Underground Gardens, as they are called today, would soon become Baldasare Forestiere's home - and refuge from the maddening Central Valley heat. After all, it can be well over 100F outside and yet his pleasant garden home remains wonderfully cool.
In Forestiere's native home of Sicily at that time, tradition dictated that when the head of the house died, the oldest son received everything. Unfortunately for Forestiere, he was not the oldest son in his family and one day decided to seek his fortune in America instead of spending his life as a laborer in Sicily. But the little money he had managed to save for his passage was soon spent after his arrival in New York City and he quickly decided to move on and try his luck at farming in California.
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