Tracing the Footsteps of Our Ancestors — Part 2

The Garibaldi/Ponta Ranch (earlier Italian Gardens) above Downieville in the late 1800s.Antone Costa and his family first lived at the “Italian Gardens” in Downieville on the northwest side of town, a place for many years known as the Garibaldi Ranch, then later, the Ponta Ranch. While doing research on the Italian Gardens, I found out that Antone Costa was not the first Costa to live in Downieville, a new revelation to his descendants! It turns out the first Costa to live in Downieville was Giacomo “Jack” Costa, who first established the Italian Gardens in the mid-1850s. Deed records at the courthouse also show a Thomas Costa buying property in Downieville in the early 1860s at Zumwalt Flat, the location where Antone Costa would later establish his family home and ranch.

It is not known the relation (if any) of Jack Costa and Thomas Costa to Antone Costa - it could be likely they were brothers or cousins, as Jack Costa is listed as being only three years older than Antone Costa in the 1860 census. This census shows Jack and Antone as neighbors at the Italian Gardens with their respective families, along with a few other Italians, including the family of Antonio “Antone” Garibaldi, a fellow Ligurian who also arrived in Downieville around 1857. Garibaldi would later own the Italian Gardens after the death of Jack Costa.

The California Farmer and Journal of Useful Sciences, issue of November 1, 1861, describes Jack Costa’s Italian Gardens as follows: “The ‘Italian Gardens’ of Downieville are as great a wonder and curiosity as we have in all the Agricultural phenomena of California. They are situated back of Downieville, high up on the steep hillside, where the earth has to be terraced by walls of heavy rocks, from three to eight feet high, according to the place, and from twenty to fifty feet long. These gardens are some three or four hundred feet above the main street of Downieville, and covering some six acres of ground, cultivated with the spade and digger or pronged hoe entirely. The walls are built very strong, and the earth terraced down to meet them, and cultivated finely. The manure from Downieville is brought up in bags or panniers upon the back of donkeys, and often by men on their shoulders; and heavy rocks brought by handbarrows from a distance to build the walls. The enterprising gardener, Mr. Costa, an Italian, is the owner of this beautiful garden, and by his indefatigable labors has made a little paradise of this spot, turning every nook and corner, every inch of ground to good account; even upon the face of the walls appear strawberry plants, and their luscious fruits which ripen in midwinter by reason of the heat reflected from the stone wall, the roots running between the stones into the rich earth back of the stones. The whole face of the walls being this covered presents a bouquet of the flowers and fruit of the strawberry and their shining leaves… This garden was commenced some six or seven years ago, and although thousands of dollars has been expended, it has now become a source of great revenue. We should ‘guess’ by what we saw that it was easy to have an income of at least a hundred dollars per week, clear income, above expenses, and this from a little spot once a barren crag, so steep that only the goats could play upon it, but now a beautiful garden yielding and income of a thousand pounds sterling per annum. Who says ‘mountain cultivation don’t pay?’”

During this period, Downieville’s original water reservoir was located in the ravine adjacently west of the Italian Gardens, just above the present-day Swint residence (it is likely this home, one of the oldest in Downieville, was part of the Italian Gardens, and was once owned by the Garibaldi and Dondero families; more recently, it is remembered by Downieville’s older residents as the home of Don and Audrey Mull). Another house at the upper end of the Italian Gardens, which was the later home of the John Ponta family, was torn down in 1952 by Angus James. A new home was built in its place shortly thereafter (the present-day Gingg residence).

Remnants of the stone terraces of Jack Costa’s gardens can still be seen to this day on the hillside above Downieville. The Italian region of Liguria features very steep slopes with little flat space for gardening; therefore, the Ligurian immigrants to Sierra County had an advantage over other immigrants who didn’t have experience with terracing and cultivating steep terrain. As I wandered along the mountainsides between Genoa and Chiavari during my trip, I saw many excellent examples of stone terracing.

Unfortunately, Jack Costa’s successes at the Italian Gardens would not last long, as his life would be cut short in a tragic manner. I will relate this story in Part 3, coming next week!