During the 1906 California heat wave, Baldassare Forestiere spent 40 years carving out a 10-acre underground home, including rooms, tunnels, and farming spaces, using only a pickax and shovel.

Baldassare Forestiere was a farmer who excavated about 20 acres underground in Fresno, California, over the course of 40 years. Initially, his motivation for creating an underground home was to escape the intense heat of the area. However, he eventually realized that underground living was not only a smart way to stay cool but also an opportunity to grow his trees underground.

Forestiere’s land was filled with a sedimentary rock called hardpan, which made it impossible for him to grow citrus, his original plan. Despite this setback, he continued to experiment and eventually figured out how to grow his fruit trees underground. He used the hardpan as a building material and reinforced the walls with it, breaking it down into stones and using it like bricks. He also designed the underground rooms with arches and courtyards, drawing inspiration from the catacombs in Rome.

Underground Living

Baldassare Forestiere excavated about 20 acres underground, creating a subterranean world of hidden bedrooms, passageways, courtyards, and even a bathtub. He did this by hand, using pickaxes, shovels, and wheelbarrows, and his own strength. He started this project because he wanted to get out of the intense heat of Fresno, which can reach over 100 degrees Fahrenheit almost every day in the summer. He came to Fresno from Sicily in the early 1900s with the idea of growing citrus, but the land he bought turned out to be filled with a sedimentary rock called hardpan, which is unsuitable for growing citrus.

After realizing he couldn’t grow citrus on his land, he started hiring himself out as a laborer, working all day in the hot sun, mostly digging ditches for irrigation canals. He wanted a cool place to come home to, so he started thinking back to Sicily and how wine cellars were so common there. He built a single cellar where he could move his bed underground and cool off. Over the years, he expanded this cellar into a vast network of underground rooms and passageways.

He experimented with different sizes and shapes of skylights to see how much sun he needed to let in for his trees to thrive while also maintaining the cool underground environment. He also used the hardpan that his land was made from to reinforce the walls of his underground rooms, breaking it down into stones and using as little cement as possible to secure them. He drew inspiration from the arches of catacombs and the architecture of Rome, where he spent some time in his early 20s.

Forestiere was not formally educated as an architect or engineer, but he was able to successfully figure out how to grow his fruit trees underground. Most citrus trees in the area have a lifespan of about 50 years, but his underground trees are over a hundred years old and protected from frost and intense heat. The underground environment provides a 10 to 15 degree drop in temperature, making it not only comfortable for humans but also for plants.

Today, Forestiere’s underground world is a hidden gem in Highway City, right off of the major Highway 99. It’s surrounded by gas stations, liquor stores, and tire places, but people often drive right past it without realizing what it is.

The Hard Pan Challenge

Baldassar Forest Deer came to Fresno from Sicily in the early 1900s with the intention of growing citrus trees. Fresno was a booming agricultural area at the time, and he thought he had made a great deal when he bought the land. However, he soon discovered that the land was filled with a sedimentary rock called hard pan, which is unsuitable for growing citrus trees.

Despite this setback, Deer excavated about 20 acres underground over a period of 40 years, using pickaxes, shovels, wheelbarrows, and his own strength. He had figured out a smart way to live in the underground space, which initially served as a way to beat the heat. He started by moving his bed underground to cool off after working all day in the hot sun as a laborer.

Deer experimented with planting fruit trees underground and eventually figured out how to grow them successfully. He used the hard pan itself as bricks to reinforce the walls, instead of buying stones or bricks. He broke the hard pan down into stones and set it back up again to create the walls.

The underground space consists of different rooms, passageways, and courtyards, with hidden bedrooms and even a bathtub. The rooms are surrounded by the natural hard pan, which is the third hardest sedimentary rock in the world. Most residents in Fresno have some hard pan in their backyards, but Deer had to dig through three to five feet of it.

The underground space provides a cool environment for both humans and plants, with a 10 to 15 degree drop in temperature. The citrus trees in the underground space have a lifespan of over 100 years, protected from the frost and intense heat that other citrus trees in the area face.

Deer drew inspiration from his upbringing in Sicily, where wine cellars were common, and from architecture in Rome, where he spent some time in his early 20s. He used arches, similar to those in the catacombs, to reinforce the structure.

Overall, Deer’s underground space is a hidden gem in Highway City, Fresno. It is a testament to his determination and ingenuity in the face of the hard pan challenge.

Creation of the Underground Home

Baldassare Forestiere, a Sicilian immigrant, came to Fresno in the early 1900s with the intention of growing citrus fruits. However, the land he purchased was filled with hardpan, a sedimentary rock that made it impossible to grow crops. In order to escape the intense heat of the area, he began excavating a single cellar where he could move his bed underground and cool off.

Using only hand tools such as pickaxes, shovels, and wheelbarrows, Forestiere spent the next 40 years excavating about 20 acres underground. He experimented with different sizes and shapes of skylights to figure out how much sun he needed to let in for the trees to thrive, while also maintaining a cool earth environment for himself.

The underground home features a variety of rooms, passageways, courtyards, and hidden bedrooms. The rooms are reinforced with hardpan, which is both natural and broken down into bricks. Forestiere used as little cement as possible to secure the bricks together due to his limited financial resources.

The architecture of the underground home draws inspiration from Forestiere’s upbringing in Sicily, where he would have seen the style of arches and catacombs. He was not formally educated as an architect or an engineer, but he used his knowledge and experience to create a unique and sustainable living space.

The underground environment is perfect for growing citrus trees, as it protects them from frost and intense heat. Forestiere successfully figured out how to grow his fruit trees underground, which enabled him to produce enough fruit to sell and make a living.

Today, the underground home is a hidden gem in Fresno’s Highway City area, which is known for its hot and dry climate. The area has developed into a commercial hub with gas stations, liquor stores, and tire places, but the underground home remains a testament to Forestiere’s ingenuity and determination to create a comfortable and sustainable living space.

The Hard Pan as a Building Material

Baldassar Forestiere, the creator of the underground gardens in Fresno, came to the area with the intention of growing citrus trees. However, he soon discovered that the land he had purchased was filled with a sedimentary rock called hard pan, which made it impossible to grow citrus. Hard pan is a type of rock that is very hard and difficult to break through, and it is common in Fresno. Most residents have some hard pan in their backyards, but they usually have only a few inches of it, and most people use dynamite to get past it. Baldassar Forestiere had three to five feet of hard pan, which made it seem endless in the beginning.

However, he soon discovered that hard pan could be used as a building material. He broke the hard pan down into bricks and used it to reinforce the walls of his underground rooms. He did not have to go out and buy stones or bricks; he just used the hard pan that his land was made from. Hard pan is the third hardest sedimentary rock in the world, and it is actually very common in Fresno.

Baldassar Forestiere experimented with the hard pan to find a soil that he thought could be nutrient-rich for his trees. He started out by just making a planter for his trees and putting a skylight in because the trees needed sun. He experimented with the sizes and shapes of the skylight to see how much sun he needed to let in for the trees to thrive. He also did not want to take away from the cool earth environment that he had created for himself.

Baldassar Forestiere used the hard pan to create arches and other architectural features in his underground rooms. He drew inspiration from his upbringing in Sicily, where he would have seen similar styles of architecture. He also spent some time in Rome before coming to the United States, and he drew inspiration from the catacombs there as well. He was not formally educated as an architect or an engineer, but he figured out how to build his underground rooms through trial and error.

Baldassar Forestiere’s underground rooms are still standing today and are a testament to his ingenuity and resourcefulness. He was able to turn a seemingly useless piece of land into a cool and comfortable home for himself and his trees using the hard pan that he had initially thought was a hindrance.

Planting Trees Underground

In Fresno, California, Baldassare Forestiere excavated about 20 acres of land underground for 40 years. Initially, this was motivated by the desire to escape the heat, as Fresno was originally a desert. However, he later realized that he could grow trees underground and create a unique living space for himself.

Forestiere’s underground property consists of different rooms, passageways, courtyards, and hidden bedrooms, some of which are above ground and some underground. The property is located in Highway City, which is a developed area with gas stations, liquor stores, and tire places.

Forestiere came to Fresno from Sicily in the early 1900s with the intention of growing citrus trees. However, the land he bought was filled with a sedimentary rock called hard pan, which is unsuitable for growing citrus. He spent 20 years digging through the hard pan to create his underground living space by hand, using pickaxes, shovels, wheelbarrows, and his own strength.

He experimented with different sizes and shapes of skylights to determine how much sun the trees needed to thrive while still maintaining a cool underground environment. He also used the hard pan to reinforce the walls of the underground rooms instead of buying stones or bricks.

Forestiere successfully figured out how to grow fruit trees underground, which helped him produce enough fruit to sell and make a living. His citrus trees have a lifespan of over 100 years, compared to the typical 50-year lifespan of citrus trees in the area.

The underground environment provides a 10 to 15-degree drop in temperature, making it comfortable for both humans and plants. Forestiere’s underground property features arches and benches, inspired by his upbringing in Sicily and his time spent in Rome.

Overall, Forestiere’s underground living space is a unique and innovative solution to the challenges of living in a hot and dry area like Fresno.