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Wakamatsu Tea and Silk Farm Colony

The first Japanese settlement in the United States, established in 1869 by John Henry Schnell along with 22 Japanese settlers from Aizu-Wakamatsu in Fukushima Prefecture. Located in El Dorado County's Gold Hill (near modern Coloma), the colony only lasted a few years, scattering after the drought of 1871.

• Okei's Story

Web site containing the text of a booklet, published in 1969 by the Japanese American Citizens League, commemorating the centennial of the founding of the Wakamatsu Colony. The story is told through the "voice" of Okei, a 19-year-old Japanese colonist buried near the colony after her death in 1871. The site includes a number of 19th-century photographic portraits presumed to be of members of the Wakamatsu Colony.

• Kenji G. Taguma, "Where it All Began: Preserving the First Settlement of Japanese in America". Nichi Bei Times, April 26, 2007.

Brief overview of the history of the Wakamatsu Colony.

• "Project Aims to Resurrect Historic Wakamatsu Tea and Silk Farm Colony". Nichi Bei Times, March 15, 2007.

Details efforts to purchase the acreage historically occupied by the Wakamatsu Colony from its current owners, descendents of the man who bought the property from colony founder John Henry Schnell.

• Gold Hill - Wakamatsu Project (American River Conservancy)

"The Florin and Placer chapters of the Japanese American Citizens League (JACL), the Fukushima Kenjin Kai, the California State Department of Parks and Recreation, and the American River Conservancy have formed a working partnership which seeks to acquire the historic 303 acre Veerkamp property at Gold Hill, a rural area between Placerville and Coloma in western El Dorado County."

• Michael Raffety, "Gold Hill Ranch-Wakamatsu Tea Colony renovation project introduced Saturday". Originally published in Mountain Democrat, April 23, 2007. (PDF)

• Cecilia Rasmussen, "Hilltop grave may become a shrine". Los Angeles Times, June 10, 2007.

Excerpt: "'To the Japanese, this farmland is our Plymouth Rock,' said Fred Kochi, a fourth-generation Japanese American living in Sunnyvale and a spokesman for several public and private groups hoping to purchase the site and restore the buildings."

• Caroline Aoyagi-Stom, "A Pioneering Japanese Colony to be Resurrected". Pacific Citizen, April 6, 2007.

"Local JA groups and the American River Conservancy are working together to purchase land where the Wakamatsu Colony - the first Japanese colony to settle in North America - was established."

• Gold Hill - Wakamatsu Project Summary (Consulate-General of Japan in San Francisco)

"On Saturday, April 21, a media event for the "Gold Hill- Wakamatsu Project" took place at Gold Hill Ranch in El Dorado County - 40 miles northeast of Sacramento, in California. One of the project's primary goals is to preserve the historic site known as "Okei's gravesite." Deputy Consul General Kazuyoshi Yamaguchi attended and addressed the participants."

Includes photographs.

• Jonathan Pearce, [http://www.balona.com/moon2.html The Far Side of the Moon: A Story About Courage. 2nd ed. BalonaBooks, 2006.

Children's literature based on the Wakamatsu Colony. Includes discussion suggestions and classroom activities for use with the book.