‘8th Wonder’ : He Seeks a Shrine to Everyman

A tobacco-chewing millionaire in khaki work clothes says he’s going to make nothing less than the “Eighth Wonder of the World” rise from wind-swept hills near San Francisco.

Some folks like the idea; others don’t. A few think he’s crazy. But it seems they’re all taking him seriously.

Mario Sengo, a businessman with a regular-guy image, wants his legacy to be a $200-million museum complex on the outskirts of Fairfield that he says would celebrate “the whole history of our country and all the people in it.”

Principally, it would be a sort of shrine to the common man, with emphasis on agriculture, says Sengo. A 160-foot tall statue of a farmer would be the largest in the world, surpassing a Soviet statue in Leningrad by just six inches, he says.

In its shadow would stretch acre upon acre of outdoor and hothouse gardens with every type of fruit, vegetable, flower, tree and bush in the nation.

The main museum building would depict the history of U.S. agriculture, art, the performing arts, nationalities, religions and the women’s movement.

Famous people such as U.S. presidents and their wives would be honored, but nearly all the enshrined would be just the regular people that made the country he loves great, says Sengo, the son of Portuguese immigrants who owned a Central Valley dairy farm.

Family Exhibits for Fee

Regular folks could pay a fee--perhaps $10,000--to set up an exhibit that would include family photographs and history, he says.

A nonprofit museum foundation that Sengo has formed would use donations to build the complex on 185 acres of farmland that he’s buying for nearly $1 million along Interstate 80, the major east-west artery serving San Francisco, about 45 miles to the southwest.

Sengo, who installed himself as lifelong chairman of the foundation, has already spent more than $135,000 of his own money to open an office in nearby Fairfield, staffed with full-time workers. Sengo, the owner of a fruit- processing plant, says he raised part of the money by selling various collections.

Sengo says he won’t get one penny back.

“I want my name to live,” he says. That’s why he’s named the project the Mario Sengo Museum and the surrounding grounds, the Isabel Botanical Gardens, after his wife. The idea first came to him 25 years ago when a friend died “and left nothing behind.”

He’s not worried by the hurdles on the road to immortality, such as government permits.

At a recent hearing, Sengo asked the Solano County Board of Supervisors to waive or postpone $25,000 in government processing fees and grant him a use permit.

The five elected overseers of the county were split over whether the government should pay the processing fees. They finally agreed that before any decision, they want Sengo to pay for a feasibility study showing how the project would affect traffic and area services.

Supervisor Don Pippo labeled the project “heritage enhancement,” saying that “we’re in a position today to practice what we preach . . . by giving a visionary a chance.” The county should extend support to something other than commercial projects, he added, urging partial waiver of fees.

Supervisor Lee Sturn called it “a wonderful dream and a wonderful project,” but said she is concerned that it is inconsistent with the general plan for the area. She opposes waiving fees.

County staff advisers have recommended the project be rejected as inconsistent with the general plan because it is on land in the buffer zone between Fairfield and Vacaville.

Supervisors also want to know how Sengo will finance the museum, which could take a decade to construct. Sengo says he plans to get about 20% each from corporations and nonprofit foundations, 10% from various government sources, and the rest from private donors.

The admission charge to the museum would be adjusted to pay for staff, he says, and any profits above operating costs would go to the poor.

Sengo believes the museum will be approved, but if it isn’t, he vows to move it to another city or county.

Though optimistic about the ambitious undertaking, he works tirelessly to promote it.

Sengo bustles around Fairfield in his white and green Continental drumming up support wherever he can with a folksy manner which belies the sharp instincts that made him wealthy.

In citing facts and figures, he often double-checks himself with his staff. During any lengthy conversation, he steps away every few minutes to spit a gob of tobacco juice somewhere, then chuckles at himself and apologizes for having such a nasty habit.

He often wears blue-collar work clothes on his plump frame and cowboy boots rather than the fancy garb and expensive jewelry of his earlier days. “I don’t dress rich. I could, but I don’t,” he says.

A thicket of pens stick out of a front shirt pocket, stuffed with papers.

Bushy gray hair fluffs up from the sides to partially cover the balding top of his head. Heavy eyebrows and a quick, wide smile etch parallel lines across his round face. He won’t say how old he is, just that he’s in his 60s.

Though born and reared in the Central Valley, Sengo moved his family to San Jose and got into the restaurant business. Later, he made a small fortune in real estate before getting into the fruit-processing business.

In promoting the museum, Sengo has discovered there are pitfalls he never expected.

A year ago, it appeared he had the whole project financed through a proposed business deal. But it turned out to be an advance-fee loan scam.

When Sengo brought a lawyer into it, the attorney recognized the scam. They contacted the Solano County district attorney’s office and set up a sting that led to the con man’s arrest.

Sengo, admitting that he could know more about history, says he would recruit volunteers, such as university professors, to guide acquired and donated materials.

More than just a museum, the project would feature picnic areas and a lagoon that would lure waterfowl, he says.

Besides the farmer statue, smaller statues would depict a cowboy on a horse, the American bald eagle, and California’s symbol, the grizzly bear.

There would also be an indoor and an outdoor theater with a total of 4,200 seats, windmills, and displays showing wildlife and the history of the wheel. Two trains would carry people through the complex.

“It’s going to be recognized as one of the eight wonders of the world,” Sengo says.