Preston Communicator. It Was a Great Wine Tasting and Tour. Preston Castle Halloween Haunt - Oct. 28, 29, 30

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1 Preston Communicator Fall 2011 Volume 5, Issue 3 Preston Castle Foundation, PO Box 488, Ione, CA prestoncastle.com info@prestoncastle.com (209) It Was a Great Wine Tasting and Tour We sure hope you were there. If not, you really missed a great 7th Annual Wine Tasting and Tour on September 10. The Preston Castle patio and cellar were alive with music, food and wine. Fifteen of Amador County s premier wineries poured tastings of their wines into complimentary wine glasses given to each of the guests. Live music was provided by the Stephanie D. Trio on the patio stage and D.J. Mullins played a groovy saxophone in the cellar. Best of all were the outstanding gourmet hors d oeuvres served by our own Castle Culinary Crew (CCC). Lots of compliments to the CCC and the many volunteers who worked so hard to make such delicacies as crab cakes, homemade meatballs, chicken skewers, bacon-wrapped asparagus, fritatta,... the list goes on. Compliments to the many chefs! Wine Tasting and Tour Chairs Marie Nutting and Jerry Funderburgh extend their thanks and gratitude to the many volunteers who once again made this event such a rousing success. So if you missed this year, not to worry, we ll have another Wine Tasting and Tour next year! Preston Castle Halloween Haunt - Oct. 28, 29, 30 Looking for a real Halloween experience? How about a visit to the eerie and scary Preston Castle. This is Northern California s real haunted house. In fact, the Castle has been featured on television programs Ghost Hunters and Ghost Adventures. This is your chance to visit the Castle at night, for a fun scare tour of the Castle, not an historical tour. And for young children who do not go on the tour, there will be a children s fair with games and fun activities until 9 pm. Children must be accompanied by an adult. We will also have a snack bar with hot dogs, cotton candy and other munchies to calm your fears before and after the tour. Halloween T-shirts and other items will be available for purchase. Dress warmly, October nights can be chilly. This also ends our 2011 tour season. Regular Castle tours will begin again March Come and visit the Castle if you dare! Haunt dates are: Friday, Oct. 28, 6:30 to 11pm Saturday, Oct. 29, 6:30 to midnight (latest entry 11:30) Inside This Issue Sunday, Oct. 30, 6:30 to 11pm Wine Tasting and Tour and Halloween Haunt... 1 Tickets are $20 adults, $10 high school and younger students, Summer Events and New Windows... 2 $5 children not going on scare tour. Gates open at 6 pm; the Treasurer, Paranormal Conference... 3 first scare tour is 6:30pm. Tickets are limited each night. To The CCC and Web Cams... 4 order early go to Also available at Thank You and Photos... 5 Ione Curves and Clark s Corner. If anyone wishes to add or change anything in the newsletter, or would like to get copies of past issues, please let us know at info@prestoncastle.com or at the next meeting. We always enjoy hearing from our readers!

2 Preston Communicator Page 2 The Sounds of Music The summer was alive with the sounds of music. It started with the Johnny Cash Tribute Concert in June, continued with FreeZeout in July, and ended with Thirty Years After in August. The summer concerts were all held outdoors on the Preston Castle Courtyard. Singer James Garner did an outstanding job at the June 25th concert, emulating the great Johnny Cash and performing his music. The FreeZeout band rocked the Castle on July 23 as they played classic and contemporary rock music to an enthusiastic local following. The Thirty Years After band concluded the concert series August 13 with a sell-out crowd. This band, back together after 30 years, played all the classic rock songs we know and love. In fact, the crowd did not want to leave, many were still dancing and humming the music after the band packed up their instruments. All in all, it was a summer of fun, music and memories. The dancing energy was fueled by refreshing beverages, served up by our outstanding bar crew of Bob and Joyce Henricus and Carl and Martha Gillette, and delicious hamburgers, hot dogs, and other snacks served up by our Castle Culinary Crew. Thanks to everyone for your support and attendance. All proceeds go to Castle restoration, repairs and preservation. The Castle Gets Windows We are pleased to report the Castle is getting windows. You may have noticed that many windows are broken or missing. At an estimated cost of $950 per window to fabricate or repair, it seemed like a project that could take years of fundraising to accomplish. Enter our heroes: volunteers Dave Munson, Jeff Scrogings and Steven Gast. The trio are restoring the Castle s windows for the cost of supplies, and they are using historic methods. According to Yvonne Funderburgh, Acting Building Committee Chair, they are literally saving us hundreds of dollars per window. The goal is to complete window restoration by the end of winter. The main work now is in the infirmary, where the PCF is restoring the rooms to their previous condition, creating a museum for the furniture and equipment received from the closure of the Preston Youth Correctional Facility. For those of you interested in helping, there will be a paint party Saturday, November 12, starting at 9am, to prime and paint the infirmary walls. We are still looking for additional supplies, e.g., single pane glass, screening, etc. For more information, contact Yvonne Funderburgh at (408) or by at: prestoncastletours@sbcglobal.net.

3 Preston Communicator Page 3 Treasurer Vacancy President s Message Sadly the PCF Board is losing one of its critical Officers, Kim Kozlowski. Kim presently serves as Treasurer of the Preston Castle Foundation, the position previously held by her father, Bob Ogelvie. Kim s outstanding service will be sorely missed and she will be hard to replace. So although Kim will be serving as Treasurer through the end of this year, we need to begin recruiting early for her successor. If you are interested in joining a dedicated and hardworking group of people committed to saving the Preston Castle, and if you have an accounting/bookkeeping background, we would love to hear from you. Call Jerry Funderburgh at (209) or (209) or send an to info@ prestoncastle.com, or mail to P.O. Box 488, Ione, CA Thankfully, Kim will continue to serve as a Director of the Foundation. Paranormal Conference, November 19 Interested in paranormal experiences? Our own overnight tours for this year have been sold out for some time, but you have one more chance. Sign up to attend the Paranormal Conference at the Castle, November 19. The conference is being organized by Douglas Carnahan, Director of NorCal Paranormal Investigators and host of The Haunted Truth paranormal radio. This unique event promises to be an exciting day of fun, food and lectures by noted authorities and investigators in the paranormal field. Those who purchase a gold ticket will also participate in a nighttime paranormal tour and investigation of the Preston Castle. Our own Sally Aquino, paranormal investigator and PCF docent for the nighttime paranormal tours, will be one of the event s speakers. There will also be a Meet and Greet event on Friday night, Nov. 18, at the beautiful and haunted Ione Hotel. What an exciting year it has been. We started giving tours of the Castle in March, held our highly successful Golf Classic in April, the Neverland Tea Party in May, Johnny Cash Tribute Concert in June, FreeZeout in July, 30 Years After in August, and the always popular Wine Tasting and Tour in September. We will finish our event season with our second, even scarier, Halloween Haunt at the end of October. Throughout the year we have hosted numerous groups for tours, photo shoots, weddings, and paranormal investigations. Hanging somewhat as a shadow over the Preston Castle Foundation this year was the closure of the Preston Youth Correctional Facility. It was the successor to the Preston School of Industry, which opened in 1894 as the first major institution in California to rehabilitate, rather than just imprison, youthful offenders. The closure at the end of June brought an end to 117 years of progressive juvenile reform at this site. The good news for the Preston Castle Foundation was that we were able to acquire numerous artifacts from the Preston School of Industry days that had been in storage. Many of these artifacts are now on display at the Preston Castle and many more will be brought out in the future. The building committee has been working hard making safety improvements, and repairs to floors, ceilings, walls, doors, stairways, and windows. The front porch rehabilitation will be complete in time for the winter rains. Awareness of the Preston Castle continues to expand as evidenced by the large number of visitors for our public tour days and the growing number of private tours we are giving. Our docents are doing a great job of showing off the magnificent history and architecture of this treasure. We continue to work on securing our own utility connections that will go a long ways towards obtaining legal ownership of the Preston Castle site. I would like to thank the many, many, members, volunteers, donors, sponsors, visitors, and supporters who have made this another great year. I look forward to Halloween and a wonderful Sincerely, Jerry Funderburgh, President For more information and to purchase tickets, go to www. PrestonParaCon.com.

4 Preston Communicator Page 4 Meet the CCC -- the Castle Culinary Crew Many of our events involve food -- from hamburgers and hot dogs at the summer music concerts, to our famous gourmet hors d oeuvres at the Wine Tasting and Tour. Critical to our success at these events is the high quality food prepared by our own Castle Culinary Crew (CCC). We thought it was time to introduce the CCC to you and to give them the recognition they so richly deserve. The core members of the CCC are: Tim Ferry, Patty Knobelauch, Karl Knobelauch, and Donna Ogelvie. All have a love of good food and the knowledge of how to prepare it. Tim Ferry is a professional chef at a senior citizen complex in Sacramento. Tim credits Teamwork for the CCC s success. Without the planning of the committee and the help of the volunteers we could not have succeeded, Tim said, speaking of the resounding success of the array of food at the Wine Tasting and Tour event. The CCC created no less than 14 items to feed more than 400 guests. Tim said the CCC takes pride in helping in whatever way they can to rebuild the Castle, stating, My goal is to see the people enjoy what they eat, and leave happy. Karl and Patty Knobelauch, husband and wife, are a team at home and at work. Both own the Curves for Women fitness center in Ione. Karl worked many years in law enforcement before retiring to continue his public service in the community. Karl is Vice President of the PCF and his biography is on our Preston Castle website. Patty was the school nurse for the Amador County School District for several years before retiring this year, more committed than ever to community service. You might also know Patty and Karl from the many St. Patrick s Day dinners and BBQs they have prepared for the Ione Community Methodist Church. Lucky for the PCF, they have brought these crowd-pleasing culinary skills to the CCC. Donna Ogelvie is the CCC s fourth member. Donna is a seasoned veteran, having cooked for the Wine Tasting and Tour, and other events, each year it has been held. Don t mention meatballs to Donna, because she has cooked thousands for the Wine Tasting and Tour. Donna is also a Director on the PCF Board and her biography is on the Preston Castle CCC continued... Website. The Ogelvie family: Donna, her late husband, Bob Ogelvie, and daughter, Kim Kozlowski, have devoted several years and countless hours to the PCF and its mission to preserve the Preston Castle. Web Cams Coming Soon The Preston Castle is joining the 21st Century! Thanks to the vision and imagination of Jack Mitchell, Publisher of the Amador Ledger-Dispatch newspaper, the Castle is getting web cameras. Cameras will be installed in the Castle tower and other locations at the Castle. The public will be able to go online and enjoy the views from the Castle tower. And the Preston Castle Foundation will finally be able to have telephone and internet service inside the Castle. These will join the growing number of web cams that are installed throughout Amador County. The web cams give locals and visitors live views of what s happening in the county as well as the weather conditions. Presently there are web cams at sites such as: Clark s Corner in Ione, the Castle Oaks Golf Course, downtown Sutter Creek, downtown Jackson and other locations. To see the web cams already in place throughout the county, visit The com website also has a link to the web cams. Soon you will see the Preston Castle live, no matter where you are. The Preston Castle Foundation thanks Jack Mitchell and the Amador Ledger-Dispatch for making this possible. Join the Board You could play an even larger role in restoring the castle by being a Preston Castle Foundation Board Member. If you re interested in joining the Board, contact Jerry Funderburgh at (209) , or info@prestoncastle.com

5 Preston Communicator Page 5 thank you! We applaud our 2011 donors, supporters, and volunteers for their contributions to help save the castle. Generous community support enables us to continue making progress on this extensive project. Enyoying the music, food, wine and fun at the Wine Tasting and Tour Thank you. See you at the Castle! Front Porch roof rebuild Groovin in the Castle Courtyard to 30 Years After Johnny Cash Tribute - featuring James Garner The Preston Castle Foundation is working on a full calendar of tours and events for Please check our website in January for details.