Jonathan Burgess treasures the historic legacy of his 19th Century ancestor, Rufus Burgess, who gained freedom from slavery after coming to California in the late 1840s and built a prosperous life for his family in gold rush country.
The northern California fire battalion chief also values the more than 80 acres of land owned by his great great grandfather and his descendants, which he says the state wrongly took in 1947 and is now part of Marshall Gold Discovery State Historic Park in Coloma. He and his family want the state to return that land, once home to abundant fruit-bearing orchards and Rufus Burgess's blacksmith shop.
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