Tuesday,
January 22, 2008
"Italians of the Gold
Country" Amador County,
CA.
Amador County
is located mid California near its eastern
border, 45 miles southeast of Sacramento,
the Capital. It is a tiny county of just 605 square miles, with a
current total population of 38,471(2000).
It is a part of California known as the
foothills of the Sierra Nevada
Mountains.
Amador County
is home of the Gold Rush era in California,
and the the Eureka Gold Mine in Sutter Creek, that
started it all. There are the Argonaut Mine, the Kennedy Gold Mine, and
numerous other.
"Italians of
the Gold Country" chronicles the Italian immigrant experience and those
who came to the foothills during the Gold Rush, many of whom poured in from Italy's northern Provence.which
left its mark on the Mother Lode and helped form the county of Amador.
Historian pens book about the History of
Italians in Amador
Amador
Ledger-Dispatch - Jackson,CA,USA
Tuesday,
January 22, 2008
Carolyn
Fregulia lives on a sprawling ranch outside of Jackson cradled in a nook
between the high, yellow hills. For five generations her family has worked the
land - farming, ranching, tending to olive groves. The
Fregulia story is in many ways typical of the
Italian immigrant experience which left its mark on the Mother Lode and helped
form the county
of Amador. Fregulia's book "Italians of the Gold Country"
will be released on by the highly successful Arcadia Publishing house, offering
a visual and written history of a time when Amador was thriving with diversity.
Fregulia,
whose cattle ranch off Clinton
Road is still operational, has spent the last
20 years researching the Italian families who came to the foothills during the
Gold Rush, many of whom poured in from Italy's
northern Provence.
"Learning about what happened with the Italians who came here was a big
part of my own family history," said Fregulia.
"Investigating it was so mething I worked on for
a long time. By the time the opportunity came up to write a book for Arcadia, it didn't take
long because the knowledge was already at my fingertips."
Fregulia's book is loaded with more than 200 vintage
images, some of which have never been seen before by the public or other local
historians. The book also highlights the stories of local families and names
that have been prominent in the community over several generations.
For Fregulia, the contributions made by Italians who
staked their future on Amador is a piece of history
that's in danger of being forgotten. "I think the older people who live
here have an idea about the contributions Italians made," she said.
"But with expansion and development and a changing face of the community,
I think many of the younger people do not know what an impact the Italian
culture had on this area for a century and a half."
One example Fregulia cites is that in the 1880s almos t every merchant known in Jackson (Capital of Amador) was Italian.
After the Gold Rush died off, Italians, along with Eastern Europeans and people
from England's Cornish
coast, continued to immigrate to Amador to work in the large mining
operations, such as the Kennedy Mine and Argonaut Mine in Jackson, and the Eureka Mine in Sutter Creek.
During the Argonaut Mine disaster in 1922, dozens of the victims who lost
their lives where Italian (most of whom are buried together in Jackson's Catholic
Cemetery). Fregulia explained that the influx of Italians continued
right up until 1942, when the mines were closed due to World War II.
"Italians of the Gold Country" will be sale
at Hein & Co. Book Store on Main Street, Jackson.
Interested readers can also purchase "Italians of the Gold Country"
directly from Fregulia by calling her at 223-0443.
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The
Amador Hotel, formerly the Ben White Hotel, was built by Bartolomeo Bianchetti
in 1879. The mining camp was experiencing a housing shortage, and like may
hotels in the Mother Lode, the Ben White Hotel took in
permanent boarders.
'Italians
of the Gold Country'
Available at area bookstores, independent retailers, online bookstores or
through Arcadia Publishing at www.arcadiapublishing.com or (888) 313-2665. $19.99, Arcadia Publishing.
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