Comune di Fanano
dove mi trovo : Introduction - History - Felix Pedro
Felix Pedro and Alaskan Gold
The recent history of the town of Fanano cannot be told without paying due homage to the achievement of Felice Pedroni.
He was born in 1858, the last child of six, at Teggie – Casa Biagio, Trignano, of parents who were subsistence farmers like so many at that time. After his father died while he was still very young, Pedroni was driven by the hardships of the life in store for him and his family’s poverty to make the same decision as many of his fellow-countrymen at the time and emigrate, first to France in 1881, and then to the United States in 1883.
Once in the United States Felice Pedroni, now known as Felix Pedro, moved around frequently, passing through the States of Illinois, Colorado, Utah, Oregon and Washington, always in search of better employment opportunities.
He worked as a labourer and as a coal-miner ... but was soon caught up in what for many men became a true disease: gold fever.
This took him first to Canada, from 1892 to 1893, and then to Alaska in 1894. He spent a long time in the Yukon, getting to know the local people, and he fell in love with the wild central lands, around the Tanana river.
His life became more and more adventurous, reflecting a drive to succeed sustained by an exceptionally determined character, which helped him to survive in even the most desperate circumstances.
The reward for his efforts came on July 22nd 1902, with the discovery of gold in the bed of the stream now called Pedro Creek.
Pedroni managed to obtain the state mining concession, and within a few months he became the President of the new Mining District of Fairbanks, founded in his hut on September 8th 1902.
The search for gold brought good results, and soon a cluster of houses sprang up on the site; this was the first core of today’s City of Fairbanks.
Felice returned to Italy in 1909 to get married, but the girl he wanted turned him down; once back in Alaska he married an Irishwoman, Mary Ellen Doran, of doubtful morals and very few scruples.
Shortly afterwards, for reasons that have never been made clear, he lost his mining concession and thus also his wealth, becoming poorer than when he arrived in Alaska.
He died in 1910 at the age of 52, in dubious circumstances.
The body of Felice Pedroni, rediscovered after 70 years, now lies in Fanano Cemetery, where it was laid to rest on October 12th 1972; the inscription on his tombstone reads: “Il giorno 12/10/72 Felice Pedroni ha rivisto la sua terra. Il suo intuito, il suo coraggio, la sua tenacia hanno dato la ricchezza e la città di Fairbanks allo stato di Alaska”. [“On 12/10/72 Felice Pedroni returned home. His intuition, courage and determination gave wealth and the City of Fairbanks to the State of Alaska"].
The City of Fairbanks, Alaska’s second city after Anchorage, recalls Felix Pedro, its founder, in its Golden Days ceremonies every year.
The Town of Fanano, which became sister-city to Fairbanks in 2002, supports many cultural exchanges between the twin towns, which have so far generated several events, including a specific congress on emigration held in Fanano in 2003 with the participation of a large number of guests from Fairbanks, representing the City Council and the worlds of art, history and music.
Felice Pedroni, an emigrant from Fanano, symbolises the large-scale emigration which took place across the Apennines in the XX Century. His story is representative of the often cruel fate which our forefathers had to face to survive; at the level of anthropology, his tale has a meaning far above and beyond the life of the gold-seeker himself: in a modern world where there are no more uncharted spaces and where everything is within reach, he represents the historic archetype of the wayfarer, the traveller whose steps define and annul distances.
At Trignano, in the chestnut-wooded valley which runs down to Rocca Corneta, the stream which remains frozen all winter can still bring to mind a story we are all able to experience internally. The message of this Fanano man’s life is above all this: that at the fundamental level every person’s steps retrace the destiny of the great migrations, and that we all have roads open to us within easy reach, which we are still able to travel. Which means that, since long before 1902, there has always been something of Alaska in Fanano and its mountains, and the true meaning of journeying has nothing to do with the lives of unusual men ( www.felicepedroni.it ).
He was born in 1858, the last child of six, at Teggie – Casa Biagio, Trignano, of parents who were subsistence farmers like so many at that time. After his father died while he was still very young, Pedroni was driven by the hardships of the life in store for him and his family’s poverty to make the same decision as many of his fellow-countrymen at the time and emigrate, first to France in 1881, and then to the United States in 1883.
Once in the United States Felice Pedroni, now known as Felix Pedro, moved around frequently, passing through the States of Illinois, Colorado, Utah, Oregon and Washington, always in search of better employment opportunities.
He worked as a labourer and as a coal-miner ... but was soon caught up in what for many men became a true disease: gold fever.
This took him first to Canada, from 1892 to 1893, and then to Alaska in 1894. He spent a long time in the Yukon, getting to know the local people, and he fell in love with the wild central lands, around the Tanana river.
His life became more and more adventurous, reflecting a drive to succeed sustained by an exceptionally determined character, which helped him to survive in even the most desperate circumstances.
The reward for his efforts came on July 22nd 1902, with the discovery of gold in the bed of the stream now called Pedro Creek.
Pedroni managed to obtain the state mining concession, and within a few months he became the President of the new Mining District of Fairbanks, founded in his hut on September 8th 1902.
The search for gold brought good results, and soon a cluster of houses sprang up on the site; this was the first core of today’s City of Fairbanks.
Felice returned to Italy in 1909 to get married, but the girl he wanted turned him down; once back in Alaska he married an Irishwoman, Mary Ellen Doran, of doubtful morals and very few scruples.
Shortly afterwards, for reasons that have never been made clear, he lost his mining concession and thus also his wealth, becoming poorer than when he arrived in Alaska.
He died in 1910 at the age of 52, in dubious circumstances.
The body of Felice Pedroni, rediscovered after 70 years, now lies in Fanano Cemetery, where it was laid to rest on October 12th 1972; the inscription on his tombstone reads: “Il giorno 12/10/72 Felice Pedroni ha rivisto la sua terra. Il suo intuito, il suo coraggio, la sua tenacia hanno dato la ricchezza e la città di Fairbanks allo stato di Alaska”. [“On 12/10/72 Felice Pedroni returned home. His intuition, courage and determination gave wealth and the City of Fairbanks to the State of Alaska"].
The City of Fairbanks, Alaska’s second city after Anchorage, recalls Felix Pedro, its founder, in its Golden Days ceremonies every year.
The Town of Fanano, which became sister-city to Fairbanks in 2002, supports many cultural exchanges between the twin towns, which have so far generated several events, including a specific congress on emigration held in Fanano in 2003 with the participation of a large number of guests from Fairbanks, representing the City Council and the worlds of art, history and music.
Felice Pedroni, an emigrant from Fanano, symbolises the large-scale emigration which took place across the Apennines in the XX Century. His story is representative of the often cruel fate which our forefathers had to face to survive; at the level of anthropology, his tale has a meaning far above and beyond the life of the gold-seeker himself: in a modern world where there are no more uncharted spaces and where everything is within reach, he represents the historic archetype of the wayfarer, the traveller whose steps define and annul distances.
At Trignano, in the chestnut-wooded valley which runs down to Rocca Corneta, the stream which remains frozen all winter can still bring to mind a story we are all able to experience internally. The message of this Fanano man’s life is above all this: that at the fundamental level every person’s steps retrace the destiny of the great migrations, and that we all have roads open to us within easy reach, which we are still able to travel. Which means that, since long before 1902, there has always been something of Alaska in Fanano and its mountains, and the true meaning of journeying has nothing to do with the lives of unusual men ( www.felicepedroni.it ).