L'Italo-Americano

SEATTLE ITALIAN COMMUNITY THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 19, 2026 www.italoamericano.org 28 L'Italo-Americano two young women ready to devour a huge plate of pasta. The collection spans the 1920s to the 1970s, but most photos are from the 1930s and 1940s. Although diverse i n s u b j e c t m a t t e r – f r o m parades to puppies, snow- covered mountains to his parents' backyard – Panieri's photos are united by their down-to-earth depiction of everyday life in a small rural community. Pio Panieri remained a bachelor until he was 71. He died in 1991 at the age of 87 and is buried in the Veter- an's Cemetery in Roslyn. The story of Pio Panieri might have ended there but for a phone call one day in 2 0 1 3 , w h e n P i o ' s g r a n d - nephew, John Crestanel- lo, contacted the Washing- t o n S t a t e L i b r a r y . Crestanello had digitized hundreds of his uncle's origi- nal negatives and was look- i n g f o r a s a f e r e p o s i t o r y where they could be enjoyed by future generations. Was there a way to preserve the collection and make it avail- able online? T h e a n s w e r w a s t h e peaks and remote fire look- outs, often with the family dog in tow. He also enjoyed woodworking and garden- ing. During World War II, he served with the US Navy. Soon after his discharge in 1945, his father died, and Pio took over ownership of the Roslyn Bakery with his sister Eliza. As a young man, Pio was interested in photography – a hobby he would pursue the rest of his life. With his cam- era in tow, he documented the beauty of Washington's b a c k c o u n t r y a n d h e l p e d record the daily lives of his friends and neighbors. His p o r t r a i t s h a v e a d r e a m y quality to them and offer a glimpse into a fast-disap- pearing way of life. Included in the collection are many photos of Pio him- self – posed at the entrance tunnel to the No. 9 mine, dressed in his Sunday-best, o r l e a n i n g a g a i n s t a c a r cradling a small dog. Other p h o t o s s h o w a n e i g h b o r shoveling massive amounts of snow off a roof, Caesar and Theresa Panieri proudly posing on their lawn, and Washington Rural Her- itage project, which pro- v i d e s l i b r a r i e s a n d o t h e r repositories with funds to digitize and preserve histori- cally significant materials, such as photos and docu- ments, that tell the story of Washington's small rural communities. Today, 1,216 photos in the Panieri Photo Collection are managed by the Roslyn P u b l i c L i b r a r y . F o r m e r Roslyn librarian Erin Krake remembered feeling over- whelmed by the offer. "I find it hard to express how these photos make me feel," she said. "I feel a closeness to this guy that I don't even know, and I feel closer to this community than ever before." Roslyn and other small communities were built by p i o n e e r f a m i l i e s l i k e t h e Panieri's, but their daily lives o f t e n w e n t u n r e c o r d e d . Thanks to Pio's photographs, the people and events that took place in Roslyn in the 20th century have been cap- tured on film and preserved f o r f u t u r e g e n e r a t i o n s t o study and enjoy. producing areas in the Unit- ed States, Roslyn was soon a bustling town, home to a diverse community of min- ers. In its early years, about 40 percent of its residents were foreign-born, mostly from Italy, the United King- dom and Eastern Europe. It was into this environ- ment that Caesar and There- sa Panieri moved. Both born in Italy in 1872, the couple i m m i g r a t e d t o C o l o r a d o , w h e r e t h e y s t a r t e d t h e i r family: daughters Seconda was born in 1900 and Eliza in 1901, followed by their son, Pio, in 1903. The Panieri family moved to Roslyn around 1908 when P i o w a s f i v e y e a r s o l d . There, Caesar founded the Roslyn Bakery & Grocery Store on N. 2nd Street; ads h e r a n i n t h e n e w s p a p e r a d v e r t i s e d t h e s t o r e ' s "Bread, Pastries and Confec- tionaries." A s a n o n l y s o n , P i o helped out in his father's store but also spent much of his free time exploring the natural beauty of the Cas- cades. He took wilderness t r e k s t o s n o w y m o u n t a i n N estled among e v e r g r e e n trees, the tiny t o w n o f R o s l y n , W a s h i n g t o n , p o p u l a t i o n about 950, oozes charm and character. That's why pro- ducers of the popular 1990s television series, Northern Exposure, selected Roslyn – w i t h i t s h i s t o r i c s t o r e - fronts, cafés and pubs – as the stand-in for the fictional town of Cicely, Alaska. But while the characters of Northern Exposure were make-believe, it's now possi- ble to acknowledge and cele- brate the real-life residents of this small town in Kittitas County – thanks to a collec- t i o n o f 1 , 2 0 0 b l a c k - a n d - white photos recently made available to the public. The photos were taken by Pio Panieri, a second-gen- e r a t i o n I t a l i a n A m e r i c a n w h o s e f a m i l y a r r i v e d i n Roslyn in the early 1900s and ran the Roslyn Bakery & Grocery Store. Panieri's pho- tos, taken over a 50-year period, offer an authentic down-to-earth portrait of the people and everyday events of Roslyn and the beauty of the surrounding country- side. Roslyn's early history is intertwined with that of coal. When prospectors from the Northern Pacific Railroad discovered rich veins on the east slopes of the Cascade Mountains in 1886, railroad executives wasted no time. T h e y h i r e d h u n d r e d s o f w o r k e r s a n d t r a n s p o r t e d them by rail to begin mining operations. About 400 men, including a trainload of Italian miners, s p e n t t h a t f i r s t w i n t e r i n Roslyn. A hastily built gener- al store and a saloon went up first, followed by a hotel, boarding house, livery barns and other buildings. Coal mining is a danger- ous business and the town's early years were plagued by work strife, fires and explo- sions, including the worst coal-mine disaster in Wash- ington history, in which 45 miners died. But coal was essential for the country's westward expansion, and by 1901, more than 1,000 min- e r s w e r e e x t r a c t i n g m o r e than one million tons of coal annually at Roslyn. As one of the largest coal- Pio Panieri's photos provide a homey look at small-town life in Roslyn RITA CIPALLA Pio Panieri, seen on a summer hike in August 1935, on his way to Lake Ingalls in Chelan County, a high-altitude glacial lake known for its deep-blue waters; bot- tom right: Panieri captured common events in his community, including this logging truck photographed on September 4, 1949 (Photos: Pio Panieri Collection, Roslyn Public Library)

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