In a desolate valley outside Eureka, Nevada, lies the common grave where five Italian charcoal burners were shot dead in 1879 by a sheriff’s posse while striking for better wages on the burgeoning mining frontier. 

Lucia Mauro's new documentary, titled The Loneliest Road,  is inspired by Silvio Manno’s 2016 book, Charcoal and Blood: Italian Immigrants in Eureka, Nevada and the Fish Creek Massacre. Lucia was so moved by this story and an interview in We The Italians magazine that she contacted Silvio Manno, and the two of them bonded over his passionate pursuit of chronicling Eureka’s charcoal crisis and what came to be known as the Fish Creek Massacre of Italian immigrants.