The fields drew the world to Fresno. Through the early twentieth century the city filled with immigrants come to work and farm the land — Armenians above all, who built Holy Trinity Church in 1914 and gave Fresno the writer William Saroyan, alongside German-Russian, Japanese, Chinese, and Mexican communities. That mix never left; Fresno today is one of the most diverse cities in the United States, a valley capital built by many hands and many languages.
And one immigrant built something unlike anything else in California. Starting in 1906, a Sicilian named Baldassare Forestiere spent forty years — with shovels, picks, and his own imagination — hand-digging an underground world beneath the hardpan: more than ten acres of rooms, courtyards, and tunnels as deep as twenty-five feet, with citrus trees growing up toward skylights and a microclimate cooler than the brutal valley summer. The Forestiere Underground Gardens, now a registered historic landmark, are still there — Fresno's strangest and most wonderful secret.
Why People Visit Fresno
Visitors choose Fresno for its unique gardens, family-friendly parks, and gateway convenience. The Tower District and downtown highlight history and everyday culture, and the city's central location makes regional day trips simple — most of all into the High Sierra. Travelers find year-round appeal in its parks, paths, and public spaces, where vintage farm-town California and the wild mountains beyond sit side by side in a welcoming way.
