i'm jamie colby. thanks for watching "strange inheritance." and remember -- you can't take it with you. ♪♪ >> the ultimate man cave... >> underground, this was his home. >> ...dug with shovel and pick. >> he came at a time in america where if you could dream it, you could do it. >> it's a unique architectural creation. >> you can't go anywhere else in the united states to see something like this. >> but will his legacy be buried forever? >> he called my great-uncle the human mole, and that infuriated the family. [ door creaks ] [ wind howls ] [ thunder rumbles ]

[ bird caws ] ♪♪ >> jamie colby here in the san joaquin valley near fresno in central california. i'm on my way to meet two sisters who tell me the only way to understand their strange is to dig in and get below the surface of it. >> our great-uncle baldasare dug a subterranean world that hearkens back to his sicilian boyhood. >> it's been left to us to preserve it. >> ladies, hi. i'm jamie. >> hi, jamie. i'm valery. this is my sister, lyn. >> the sisters lead me through a grapevine arch and into an underground courtyard. >> this is part of a chapel garden. like most affluent families back in sicily, they always had their own private family chapel. >> truly incredible. as kids, i must imagine you said,

"someday, i'm going to be in charge of all of this." was this your dream? >> [ laughing ] oh, no. >> no? >> no, not at all. that's another whole long story. >> that long story goes back to the old country of sicily, and lyn and valery's great-uncle baldasare forestiere, the second son of a wealthy farmer who grows olives, citrus fruits and grapes. >> baldasare really was involved with citrus, and that's what he really enjoyed doing. >> only one problem -- young baldy is not the firstborn son. >> he went to his dad and said, "hey, pop, i'd like to take over this part of this businesses," and his father said, "absolutely not." >> not? >> not, because back in sicily, the oldest son inherits everything, so baldasare knew that he could work his whole life anything of his own. >> at the age of 21, he got on the ship, landed in the port of boston,

and got a job as a subway digger. >> baldasare learns a lot about excavation, but he still dreams of starting a citrus empire. so in 1904, he sees an ad offering cheap farmland in fresno, california. >> "go west, young man." you'll make a fortune. come up to the valley, where the land is really cheap. >> he cobbles together his savings and heads out west. >> he put down $10 gold coin down payment, for about 80 acres. >> they must have seen him coming because they sold him 80 acres of hardpan. >> hardpan is what they call the fields of silt, sand and clay, 5 feet thick, tough as concrete, no good for citrus farming. >> he was pretty devastated, realizing, "what did i just buy?" >> in the middle of his 80 acres, he builds himself a shack to live in. months pass.

all he manages to coax out of his land are a few seedlings. then comes his first fresno summer. >> fresno gets 105, 110, 115 degrees. >> looking out over his sunbaked plot of dirt, baldy figures he at least knows how to turn it into a place where he can escape the heat. >> he remembered how cool the subways were back east. if you went below ground, it was very cool, the wine cellars back in sicily. >> mm. so he grabs his shovel and starts digging and digging -- tunnels, rooms. >> the hardpan made it really, really easy for him to do all this tunneling and room-creating. >> architect bob theis has baldasare's underground creation. >> it's a natural slab

that he could carve rooms out from underneath. down here in fresno, 6 feet below the surface, is an even 65 degrees year round. >> jamie, let me introduce you to the heart of baldasare's work, his underground home, starting with the kitchen. this is an icebox. this is original. >> amazing. >> and right over here is a wood stove, where he did his cooking. >> so he would cook here. where would he eat? >> let me show you... >> okay. >> ...a very special place. now watch this. >> that's handy. and there's a cozy bedroom. >> he brought a little bit of his homeland with him. if you look at the frescoes on the walls, you can see these are fruit trees on a hillside. >> in the adjoining courtyard, a shower and bath. it's a sweet spot right here. how did he get water? >> there were irrigation ditches

that ran along his property line. there was a tank up on the surface. then he would connect a hose to the tank and let it hang down here for a shower. >> pretty ingenious for the son of a farmer, with an 8th grade education. >> he's not an engineer. how the heck did he do this? >> he grew up with it. in sicily, there are catacombs covering acres, where they tunneled through the rock to create subterranean caverns. he could create usable spaces underneath. >> as baldy tunnels deeper and deeper, he hits soil hospitable to all those fruit trees he wanted to plant -- oranges, lemons, kumquats and pomegranates. >> we're about 12 feet below ground level here, and that hardpan is about halfway down. are mostly left open, to allow the sunlight for the fruit to grow. >> by now, baldy's underground world has snaked

across at least 5 acres and is attracting attention. >> suddenly friends and family would come visit him in the hot part of the day. >> so he's popular? >> he's popular. >> meantime, baldy's siblings come to america, including his younger brother, giuseppe, valery and lyn's grandfather. baldy shares with them a new, grander vision for his property. >> he got the idea of having this underground resort. i think it just came to him -- "i can do something different." giuseppe, for one, is intrigued, so he helps his big brother baldy carve more acres of hardpan into a vast grotto, with ballrooms and an aquarium, all underground. eventually, their subterranean handiwork comprises about 20 acres. how long did it take for him to build this? >> about 40 years.

he dug it with a pick, a shovel and a wheelbarrow. think what he could have done with a jackhammer. >> uncle baldy dies in 1946 at the age of 67. >> he came at a time in america where if you could dream it, you could do it. >> never married, he leaves behind five siblings, who were well aware that this part of california is growing rapidly and that uncle baldy's patch of hardpan is worth a lot more than it used to be. >> he didn't have a will, and so it was decided that they would just sell everything and then divide up the proceeds. >> like that, 3/4 of uncle baldy's land is sold off, including a huge chunk of his underground creation, and lost forever. only one sibling believes in baldy's dream. >> my grandfather giuseppe

understood what his brother was trying to do here. >> giuseppe holds on to his share, about 20 acres. that preserves baldasare's living quarters and the heart of the gardens. but what happens next makes the forestieres mad as hell. >> the developer promised that he would get the resort going, but instead, he made it weird. >> how? >> here's a "strange inheritance" quiz question. where are the world's largest catacombs? the answer after the break. ♪ limu emu & doug ♪ hey limu! [ squawks ] how great is it that we get to tell everybody how liberty mutual customizes your car insurance so you only pay for what you need? i mean it... oh, sorry... [ laughter ] woops! [ laughter ] oh, good evening! meow! nope.

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...unlike using perm plus, a shampoo which attracts cats. lots and lots of cats. visit amerisave.com now. lower mortgage rates mean higher savings. >> so where are the world's largest catacombs? it's b. the odessa catacombs in ukraine stretch over 1,500 miles. ♪♪ >> when baldasare forestiere dies in 1946, he leaves his life's work to his siblings, a vast subterranean world in fresno, california, that he dug by hand, plus the lush citrus gardens he spent a lifetime cultivating. >> you can't go anywhere else in the united states to see something like this. >> but most of baldy's siblings don't appreciate that. first chance they get, they sell off their strange inheritance to developers.

>> you always have part of the family that isn't tied closely to the gardens, so they don't have the same emotional attachment. as something becomes more valuable, its like, "oh, let's just sell it and split it up." >> sixty acres of baldy's land are sold off, including much of his subterranean paradise. only baldasare's brother giuseppe keeps his 20 acres. he's still hoping to fulfill baldy's dream of an underground resort, but giuseppe needs help. >> my grandfather was 64. to take on a whole business, he just wasn't prepared to do that, so he leased it out. he thought this would be a great business venture. >> a business venture that would celebrate the craftsmanship of the sicilian immigrant and his vast underground gardens. >> the developer promised that he would get the resort going, but instead, he made it weird. >> what did they call it? >> oh, they call... yeah, well, okay, here it is. i know my family hates this, but it was called

the human mole. come see the home of the human mole. >> the human mole? oh, my. >> and that infuriated giuseppe and the rest of the family. >> there it is, in print, even, "the secret world of the human mole." what an insult to a man of baldasare's vision. how sad. >> yes, it was. this beautiful accomplishment that he'd spent 40 years doing. somebody was trying to make it something weird. >> after the 10-year lease is up in 1960, giuseppe recovers the land, but he's forever mortified by the "mole man" moniker. the gardens are shuttered for almost a decade, until one of giuseppe's sons and baldy's grandsons makes a go of it. his name is rick, and he's lyn and valery's dad. rick reopens the gardens for tours in 1971, with a big assist from his wife, lorraine. >> my mom really took it

from that whole derogatory, caveman type of thing into, like, "wow, look at what he created here." did they charge admission? >> yes. it was like $3 or something. >> was it a profit-making business? >> you know,it sustained itself. >> when giuseppe dies in 1973, rick inherits the land with his brother, joe. they keep the gardens open to the public. lyn and valery, now teens, guide tours. the sisters leave home after high school, while over the years, urban sprawl encroaches on the area. what was once farmland has become packed with gas stations and strip malls. to build roads, more of the gardens are gobbled up by the government. >> through eminent domain, they took out a beautiful entrance, and the highway 99 was built. they had to fill in, in order to build the freeway through there. >> worried the gardens might just disappear,

rick and joseph get the remaining 10 acres designated a state landmark. but fresno continues to boom, and sadly, like the generation of forestieres before them, rick and joseph will part ways over the gardens. >> my father and my uncle ended up in court. >> what happened? >> oh, boy. >> here's another quiz question. which country created an underground bomb shelter with room for a million people during the cold war? the answer when we return. yeah, i mean the thing is, people like geico because it's just easy. bundling for example. you've got car insurance here. and home insurance here. why not... schuuuuzp.. put them together.

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>> so which country created an underground bomb shelter

in the 1960s, with room for one million people? it's a, china. the bunker below beijing included a skating rink and a movie theater. >> by 1990, what's left of the vast underground gardens in fresno, california, built with the eccentric vision of baldasare forestiere amounts to about 10 acres. his nephews joe and rick have held on to the last slice of his dream while watching fresno expand. >> now we've got the highway 99 and all kinds of shopping malls. >> lyn is one of rick's daughters. another is valery. >> my dad had promised his father, my grandpa, that he would try to preserve what had been done so that people could come and visit. >> rick, a schoolteacher, does keep the gardens open, but as real estate prices soar, he and brother joe lock horns

over the future of the underground marvel. what were they fighting over? >> my uncle just said, "you know what? i want my share. just sell the property, divide it," and my dad did not want to let go. >> the brothers take their battle to court. joe argues to have the entire property sold off and the proceeds divided. >> it was a very emotional time. >> was he successful? >> the courts divided the property, so the 10-acre landmark was then split into two parcels. >> rick's brother, joe, acreage, leaving rick with that last remaining section of the underground gardens. >> luckily, my father got the part that had the heart of the gardens, which was baldasare's living quarters, most of the features that he wanted in his mediterranean resort. >> how big is this? >> we have about 5 acres on ground level, and another, like, 4 1/2 acres of tunnels. >> then in 2012, lyn and valery's mom, lorraine,

passes away. their dad, rick, in his 80s, is no longer able to run this strange inheritance, and although his daughters would love to keep the gardens open, valery has made a life in denver, and lyn is 3 hours away in sacramento. so what's the forestiere family to do? they may have no choice but to further carve up the gardens or even sell them. if you had to go to your dad after four generations and say, "dad, we can't do it," how would he feel? >> you know, i think he'd feel hurt. he just sees it ongoing forever, you know. >> what's your "strange inheritance" story? we'd love to tell it. send me an e-mail or go to our website, strangeinheritance.com. ♪♪ ♪♪ [ engines revving ]

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dug by hand a century ago by sicilian immigrant baldasare forestiere. but each time the architectural wonder passes to the next generation, it's carved up and partially filled in. only a slice of the underground gardens are left, maintained by rick forestiere, an 88-year-old widower. >> my father owns about the last 5-acre parcel, and about 2 1/2 of the acre tunnels are open to the public. >> now the fate of this strange inheritance falls to his daughters, lyn and valery. >> i have a love for the gardens, and i don't want to see it demolished. >> mm-hmm. so valery, who works as a bookkeeper in denver, volunteers to run the gardens' business side remotely. lyn lives a mere 3 hours away in sacramento. she agrees to be an on-site presence. >> my sister, lyn, and i were the only ones who were ready to really take on an active role with the business.

>> have the two sisters dug themselves into a hole? wouldn't you rather be shopping at the mall? >> sometimes, yes. [ laughs ] >> it's not just the 6-hour round-trip commute. the gardens have caused family feuds in the past, and some of those grudge matches continue today. >> sicilian families kind of tend to hold grievances and grudges. you know, like, aunt rosa didn't return your lasagna pan 30 years ago. you know, the fight is on. >> you and your sister get along? you make the decisions together? >> we do. there's a little pushing and shoving from time to time. >> but now the sisters say they're standing united to keep the gardens open as long as they can. has this place ever been a moneymaker? >> no, you make enough to cover your costs. >> there you go. >> excellent. thank you. >> you're welcome. >> but we like to make it affordable for tourists to come in and see it. >> this is a fabulous place.

it's another world. >> i was really inspired. to make something out of money, it's easy. but to make something out of nothing, now that's something. >> if you have millions of dollars, you can hire all of the artisans in the world and create, like, a hearst castle. but if you have nothing but your own vision and just your own work ethic, you can create an underground gardens. >> valery and lyn are working with architect bob theis to find ways of keeping these gardens intact for another 100 years. >> they recognize this as an artistic creation, and they've dedicated themselves to preserving it and making it available to other people. as an architect, you know, that's something that i respect. >> for now, lyn and valery, along with their father, rick, run the forestiere underground gardens as a team, but they know it will be up to the next generation to keep

uncle baldy's legacy alive. >> what happens when you and your sister can't do this anymore? >> well, we're hoping that our children will step up to the plate. some are interested. some are not right now. >> do you worry about that, the future? >> no, i don't, actually, too much because even though i went away, i came back. i don't know what it is about the magnetism of this place. ♪♪ >> remember how uncle baldy came to america because his dad wouldn't cut him into the business in sicily, and that all of his brothers also immigrated to the u.s.? well, a few years ago, valery traveled back to the old country. she found the family farming empire gone because there was no one left to inherit it. all the more reason she and her sister are determined to preserve this family enterprise

for the next generation. i'm jamie colby. thanks so much for watching "strange inheritance." and remember -- you can't take it with you. ♪♪ >> an underwater strange inheritance. >> we've had this in the family since 1899. >> their world's an oyster. >> do you want to try and shuck >> i would. it's all about the shuck. >> but their biz is belly-up. >> they pretty much said this oyster-planting business is over. >> they want to revive it. >> a couple drinks make anything sound good. >> so, will they sink... >> we looked at our debt for the first time, like, "whoa. it's, like, $350,000". >> ...or float? >> okay, here we go. come to mama. ♪♪ [ door creaks ] [ wind howls ] [ thunder rumbles ] [ bird caws ] ♪♪