Marsha Ingrao Always Write Woodlake History: Valleycation: Baldassare Forestiere Underground Gardens

I have lived in the area 28 years, and haven't been to the gardens, though I have driven past them hundreds of times and never known it.

Around 1900, Baldassare Forestiere, the second son in his family, asked his wealthy father what he was going to inherit. When his dad told him that he would inherit nothing since he was the second son, Soon after that Baldassare left for America to seek his own fortune.

A hard-working lad, he found work in Boston digging tunnels for the subway. A few winters cured him of wanting to live there, and he hopped on a train and headed west for California. He made it to Orange County, and discovered that he loved growing oranges, but Orange County land was not cheap even back in 1900.

So he asked around for ideas of where he might acquire inexpensive land fit for growing oranges. Eventually Forestiere decided to settle in Fresno. He bought 80 acres, and set about readying his fields for orange groves.

Fresno and Tulare Counties have some interesting soil types. They have wonderful delta soil from all the rivers that flow from the Sierra Nevadas down the Fresno, Kern, Kings, Kaweah, and numerous other rivers and creeks into what used to be Tulare Lake, the largest freshwater lake other than the Great Lakes in the United States.

This is the level of hard-pan he found.

Another common soil type is known as hard-pan. This soil is more like cement. As it turned out, this ambitious lad, Baldassare Forestiere, had purchased 80 acres of mostly hardpan. Not to be discouraged, Forestiere picked up his old stand-by trade, digging, and began to dig. During the day he dug for hire, and helped create some of the amazing canals we have in this arid agricultural region. By nights and weekends he dug tunnels in his property. He started out with a large underground room, and discovered that the 115 degrees on top of the ground was only about 75 or 80 in his tunnel room. So he moved into his tunnel. He built skylights, and planted his orchard underground. It flourished, as did he. By age 40 he retired, and tunneled full-time on his property. He ended up with 5 acres of tunnels. We only saw 2.5 of them.

Forestiere was deeply religious and found ways to insert the Trinity symbolically his home and into many the garden features.

He had his own church bell as well. This may have doubled as a door bell. I forgot some of the facts, and I didn't buy a book. Moral of that story is to always buy a book! :)

Rain came through the holes in the roof and watered the plants. He was very economical and ecological as well.

He entertained frequently, often women (single women), and sometimes large parties. He was handsome, and quite popular. He had all the amenities of the that day including a radio, top-of-the-line-stove, and the ultimate in pottery decor. He carved niches in the wall to house his gadgets.

His kitchen was just as he left it. The items above were in the kitchen walls.

Although he died unmarried with no children, his brother and his bother's children bought the property, and kept it in the family, where it remains today. The tunnel house is truly a work of art. This is a tour definitely worth the investment. Photographs definitely don't portray the amount of tunnels that we saw, and we didn't see them all!