To escape the California heat, a Sicilian immigrant spent 40 years digging an underground world of gardens, rooms, and courtyards beneath Fresno entirely by hand

In California's Central Valley, where summers are scorching, one immigrant found an unusual way to stay cool. Rather than build a conventional house, Baldassare Forestiere spent four decades underground creating a world of gardens, courtyards, rooms and fruit trees, according to the California Office of Historic Preservation .

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