Wakamatsu Tea and Silk Farm Colony

The Wakamatsu Tea and Silk Farm Colony, in the Gold Hill region of El Dorado County, California, is believed to be the first permanent Japanese settlement in North America and the only settlement founded by samurai outside Japan. Twenty two people from samurai families left Japan during the Boshin Civil War of 1868 and 1869, before the Meiji Restoration, and purchased land from the Graner family after arriving in San Francisco in 1869. The colony exhibited its produce at the 1869 California State Agricultural Fair and the 1870 San Francisco Horticultural Fair, but the farm survived as a Japanese colony for only two years, from 1869 to 1871. Okei Ito, believed to be the first Japanese woman buried on American soil, is buried on the property. The Veerkamp family bought the farm after financier Matsudaira Katamori withdrew his support, and preserved the site and Okei's grave for 137 years; in 1969 Governor Ronald Reagan proclaimed the colony California Historical Landmark No. 815. The American River Conservancy purchased the land in 2010, and the National Park Service listed the site on the National Register of Historic Places at a level of national significance.