Discover Folsom’s ultimate Wild West-themed backyard where Gold Rush comes alive
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- Owner Matt Garry converted a suburban yard into an immersive Gold Rush tableau.
- Collaborators built reclaimed structures, custom lighting and authentic fixtures.
- Project emphasizes waterwise landscaping, craftsmanship and period storytelling.
A wrought-iron gate at a house on a quiet suburban street in Folsom stands as a portal to the California Gold Rush era.
Walk through it, and you’re transported straight to a scene out of the Old West: steel saguaros, a frontier saloon built out of reclaimed timber, a jail with barred windows and a cot, a hand-carved coffin and so many other authentic period details that if John Wayne sauntered into the yard, he might do a double-take.
Folsom was once a bustling outpost where Gold Rush miners and merchants converged. They arrived in the town 23 miles northeast of Sacramento on wagons and aboard the first trains crossing the Sierra foothills. Today, Folsom is known for its upscale neighborhoods, recreational lake and expansive shopping centers, but echoes from California’s frontier spirit still linger — especially at Matt Garry’s home.
His backyard isn’t a movie set and wasn’t conjured up by a Hollywood design firm. It’s the result of almost a decade of dreaming and planning, searching out the right materials and constructing what must be one of the most immersive, well-crafted Western-themed private residences in the state.
“I think that this is just an amazing scene from the Old West,” Darlene Terrill, an interior designer who has visited the home and is related to the builder, said. “It all comes together and is really tied into the period. You won’t see anything that looks out of place.”
A visionary, a craftsman, a lighting master
Garry, the homeowner and visionary, worked with Rocky Dow, contractor and craftsman, and Andy Thomas, lighting designer and owner of Viewpoint Lighting, to turn a run-of-the-mill 1990s backyard into a realistic slice of early California history.
This is not a dusty collection or hodgepodge of Gold Rush artifacts placed around a xeriscape. It’s resort-style living meets Old West. The Wild West saloon — fully equipped with fans, refrigerators, booze and a television — overlooks a pristine saltwater pool in the center of the quarter-acre yard.
Dow considers the Gold Rush-themed project a crowning achievement in his career.
“I’ve been doing it for 50 years and this is one of my top three jobs,” he said. “I’ll be retiring, probably, with this one under my belt, which has been a real pleasure and a treat to do. I was lucky enough that Matt chose me to do this project, and we’ve done it together, literally the whole way.”
Illumination plays a huge role in the project. Thomas had never shouldered an undertaking at “this level of detail, not on this sort of themed, detail-oriented, really creative aspect.
“We do a lot of high-end projects, but most of (our projects) are done in a style, not a theme,” Thomas said. “This is definitely a themed yard, and it opened up a lot more ideas on what’s possible, because now we’re not just buying something off the shelf, popping into the yard to light it up. Now, we have to hide those light sources. Now, we have to make it look like it belongs in the period. And if it doesn’t, then we try to hide it and make all these (light) sources look vintage.”
He created dusk-to-dawn lighting that transforms the frontier ambience as the day advances. Viewpoint Lighting won the California Landscape Contractors Association’s 2022 Best of the Best lighting award for the project.
“Very creative, ingenious use of lighting, all the way from the railroad-tie path lighting, to the wall wash lights to the down light that lights up the saloon doors and at the streetlight pole — just absolutely stellar,” Garry said. “The nighttime pictures are beautiful.”
The trio’s pride radiates from every rusted kerosene lantern turned into an electric fixture, every notched post and every reclaimed wood plank. Superb craftsmanship is found in the saloon’s hand-carved door, custom windows, hidden fasteners and routed beams.
Garry declined to say how much the project cost, but some of its higher priced features include single-craftsman structures using only high-quality reclaimed, steel plant models to complement drought-tolerant species and custom LED landscape lighting.
Some of the light fixtures are made to look like they have flickering flames to resemble real oil lanterns of the period. Thomas hid wires from the hanging lanterns by opening up the suspension rope and feeding the electrical line through it, then closing the rope again.
‘Minimalist backyard, water wise’
Garry’s vision began with little more than inspiration from old TV shows he liked to watch, such as “Bonanza” and “The Rifleman” — plus the desire to create a low-maintenance, water-thrifty landscape.
“The whole idea was to have a minimalist backyard, water wise and maintenance free, a lot of native plants, all hand picked by me,” he said.
His vision snowballed. Garry placed a single buckboard wagon in the yard, searching for inspiration. That quickly led to grander ideas.
“That evolved into the saloon, because it’s important to come home after work and have a beer in the shade,” he said.
Three phases of the project are complete, with a fourth coming soon.
Saloons, steel saguaros, graves
The result is a complete Western tableau, where every wooden beam and chunk of weathered steel is rooted in careful research, craftsmanship and a good dose of storytelling.
The Wild West saloon — with its hand-carved swinging doors — sits at the heart of the yard, constructed of reclaimed wood shipped from Utah. Each hand-selected timber brings a slice of American history.
“The footprint of the project just kind of fits this backyard,” Garry, who has lived in the 2,000-square-foot Hopfield Drive home since 2008, said. “So, not too big, not too small, not overwhelming. But what we’ve done inside (the saloon) is amazing.”
The saloon bar’s eye-popping, maple, epoxy countertop was custom-made in Oklahoma and features a meandering blue river inlaid with real gold nuggets and rocks to represent the iconic American River. The countertop replicates the flow of the river from Sutter’s Mill — where gold was discovered in 1848 — to Folsom.
The saloon’s swinging doors, inspired by movie westerns but built to last, make a custom statement.
“We went overboard on the gates as you walk in,” Garry said. “They are spectacular. We took it all the way, top-notch, first class. A great outcome.”
Each artifact seems to come with a tale , even the fence posts, benches, and mannequins put out for parties. An authentic “license for prostitution” is displayed tongue-in-cheek in the saloon. Some of the steel saguaros, which light up at night, are 14 feet tall. Well-respected Lake County artist Mark Colp carved many of the wood sculptures around the yard, such as the bear, bobcat and mountain lion, Garry said.
The jail is entered through a steel door from the 1880s, originally from Oklahoma, with an old Folsom prison lock. Its hanging bed can be folded up. There are stone floors, a metal roof and a hangman’s noose out front “for those who break the law,” Garry said.
A bona fide coffin has been moved around the yard until finding its final resting spot behind the jail.
“The story behind the jail is, if you break the law, you go to jail, and you look at the coffin,” Garry said. “When you look out front, you’re gonna get hung, put in a coffin. So that’s the circle of life, if you break the law.”
No wood was wasted in the making of the Wild West scene.
“When we had extra lumber, we put it all to use,” Garry said. “That bench over there we built. We built this table right here, and another table just like it in the jail. And so that kept the theme going. When we would have extra lumber, we would build something.”
A full-size ore cart from Durango, Colorado, is expected to arrive any day. It will be used to hold ice to keep drinks cold at the next backyard party and be part of a mine exhibit.
The process to reimagine the Wild West in the 21st Century wasn’t always straightforward, Dow said.
“I kept worrying about there’s going to be too much, because sometimes more is less. But when I saw it all done, and then Andy came in and did the lighting, the whole thing was complete. Overall, this is it, and it’s real special at night when the lights are on.”
