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Oasis of tolerance: Park honoring town founded by blacks celebrates 100 years
| Tuesday, Jul 29 2008 10:48 PM
Last Updated: Wednesday, Jul 30 2008 12:24 PM
Some called it a “Negro colony,” others a “Negro settlement.” Its residents treasured it as the ultimate expression of the American desire to carve out one’s own destiny and live free.
Photos:
Allensworth is celebrating its centennial this year.
Large photos of Col. Allensworth, left, and his wife, Josephine Leavell Allensworth, hang in the visitor center.
Ranger Bill Moffat walks through the Baptist Church at Colonel Allensworth State Historic Park.
Cactus are in full bloom in front of the visitor center.
An old wooden cross is held up by a stick at the Allensworth Cemetery in the middle of a field on the outskirts of Allensworth.
The dilapidated Allensworth Cemetery.
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Despite that devotion, Allensworth, the first all-black township in California, became a dusty ghost town in just decades.
But the story didn’t end there.
Black activists resurrected the isolated town, just 40 miles north of Bakersfield, as a constructive response to Martin Luther King’s assassination in 1968. Today it is known as Colonel Allensworth State Historic Park and draws tens of thousands every year.
And on Saturday, the park will celebrate the 100th anniversary of Allensworth’s founding.
There will be lectures, live rhythm and blues music, guided tours through the town’s open buildings, vendors and mementos for purchase at the park’s souvenir shop, according to state park aide Jerelyn Oliveira, who transferred there 21⁄2 years ago and loves it.
“Everybody walks away with a good feeling,” she said about visitors’ reactions to the small, quiet park, which sits close to the Kern-Tulare border northwest of Delano and is visible from Highway 43.
BEGINNINGS
The town’s founder and namesake was retired U.S. Army Lt. Col. Allen Allensworth, the first black man to achieve that rank in the armed services, according to park historians. He was also a chaplain to black troops. Born a slave in Louisville, Ky., on April 7, 1842, Allensworth had actually escaped from slavery at age 20 to join the Union Army during the Civil War.
After retiring, he traveled and lectured on the importance of self-reliance for blacks. He settled in Los Angeles and in 1908, with the help of black educator William Payne, he made it his goal to build a town where blacks could live free from bigotry and violence, and practice self-government.
“The (Central) Valley was very prejudiced, including Bakersfield,” said Los Angeles resident Josephine Blodgett Smith, 84, the colonel’s granddaughter.
Payne and Allensworth bought 800 acres at a Santa Fe rail line stop that was a major transfer point for cattle and grain shipments between Los Angeles and San Francisco. Some sources call the spot Solito. Others spell it Solita. Either way, it means “little lonely one” in Spanish and anyone visiting the isolated park today would understand why.
African-Americans inspired by Allensworth’s dream moved there seeking a better life.
“It’s part of the fabric of California,” said Victor Carter, president of the Friends of Allensworth, an all-volunteer nonprofit that raises funds for the park and enlists people as docents and lecturers. “There’s a number of towns here that were founded by other groups or organizations, and this was one that was founded by blacks.”
By 1910, the occupants had built a school — the first African-American school district in California. The biggest building in town, it often doubled as a church.
Blodgett Smith, who was born the year her grandfather died, remembers coming to Allensworth as a child to visit her widowed grandmother, after whom she is named. Her clearest memories of the town involve the schoolhouse and playing jacks on its steps.
“They really believed in education,” she said of the townspeople. “The state allocated one teacher” only, she said, so “they taxed themselves so they could have another teacher.”
Most of the 22 structures in the park now are re-creations, Carter said, but the school and one residence are originals.
“All of them are museums,” he said. “Some of the furnishings are from the original homes.”
In its heyday, Allensworth also boasted a Baptist church, a drug store, two general stores, a bakery, a restaurant, a hotel, a barbershop and a post office, among other businesses and residences for its more than 200 inhabitants.
“They had the biggest library in Tulare County,” said Bill Moffat, supervising state park ranger for the Tehachapi District.
In 1914, Allensworth became a judicial district. Unfortunately, that was also the beginning of the end for the little town.
UNDOING
Allensworth sits on what used to be the edge of the Tulare Lake wetlands, Moffat said. “There was surface water. On very wet years, it would flood.”
Much water was needed for the irrigation of crops and there were artesian wells in the area, he said, but overuse dropped their levels, and the local water company did not help the townspeople drill deeper wells.
The lack of water made for a higher alkali content in the soil, which was detrimental to some crops, Moffat said. There were also frequent droughts, he added.
Carter said Col. Allensworth also wanted to build a sort of university town. However a proposal in 1914 to create an educational community was turned down by the state Legislature, he said.
Also, in July of that year, according to park records, the Santa Fe Railroad moved its rail stop from Allensworth by creating a spur line to nearby Alpaugh. That diversion of commercial traffic put a stranglehold on the town’s economy.
AN UNTIMELY DEATH
But the biggest blow to the town came with the death of its founder.
Col. Allensworth liked to split his time between Los Angeles and Allensworth. He enjoyed preaching and, while on his way to deliver a sermon at a church in Monrovia, he was struck by a motorcycle after stepping off a streetcar.
A film viewable at the park hints that the accident might have been sinister, an attempt to simply scare Allensworth for some reason. But Moffat said the death was never thoroughly investigated, so it is still classified as accidental.
THE YEARS THAT FOLLOWED
While Allensworth was thriving as an agricultural town, the southwest Kern bergs of Maricopa, McKittrick, Taft and others near the enormous Midway-Sunset Oil Field were booming. The competition for labor, especially with the advent of the automobile, drew rural folks away from agriculture.
And two major events of the century — World War I and the Great Depression about a dozen years later — devastated the town by drawing more people to cities.
Although some residents held out over the years, by the 1960s Allensworth was pretty much a ghost town.
SAVING A DREAM
Since the mid-1970s, however, Allensworth has enjoyed the stature of “state historic park.”
“Right now there aren’t any threats that I know of to the park,” Carter said. “We had a big fight with the dairies there for a while,” he said.
Nearby Tulare farmer Sam Etchegaray wanted to build two megadairies, one of which would have been within two miles of the park, according to his Bakersfield-based attorney David Albers.
“Their vicinity to the park, the flies and the smell would have cut our visitorship way down,” Carter said.
The Friends of Allensworth and some of the people of the township of Allensworth, a community just south of the park, opposed the dairies, Carter and Albers said.
In March 2007, Tulare County supervisors approved construction of Etchegaray’s milk farms, Albers said, but following a legal battle, the State Parks Department bought the “dairy development rights” from him for $3.5 million. “The State Parks Department paid him and never built dairies on that property. The land still belongs to him. It was definitely a win-win. I think all parties were pleased with the outcome.”
Today Allensworth remains a quiet yet constant reminder of the strength of people’s dreams and the richness of the African-American experience. No wonder this “little lonely one” has, as its docents and historians like to say, appropriately earned the title of “the town that refused to die.”
GO & DO
WHAT: Founders Day Celebration at Colonel Allensworth State Historic Park. There will be music, guided tours and vendors. Picnicking is recommended.
WHEN: 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday
WHEN: On Highway 43 and Palmer Avenue, near Earlimart, Tulare County. From Bakersfield, take Highway 99 north beyond McFarland and exit at Pond Road. Go west until you come to Highway 43 and then go north to Palmer Avenue. The way is marked with brown state park road signs.
ADMISSION: $4 per vehicle for the day.
INFORMATION: 849-3433, 633-1577, or www.parks.ca.gov/allensworth.
WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW
Whatever you do when you visit the park, be sure to watch the film “Allensworth: A Piece of the World” at the visitor center. It will educate you on the town’s history, the life of its founder, and definitely make your visit more worthwhile.
Also, if you choose to visit the park on a weekday or a non-special-event weekend, call ahead to ensure a park aide or docent is available. “That’s the best way because you’ll know you have someone there to help you out,” said park aid Jerelyn Oliveira. “We can’t leave the buildings open and allow people to go in on their own.”
In summer, prepare for the heat and take plenty of water, as you will likely have to do some walking between buildings.
WILDLIFE
The park offers plenty of opportunities to witness a wide variety of wildlife in its natural habitat, including California ground squirrels, black-tailed jackrabbits, cottontail rabbits, killdeer, coyotes, several species of lizards, kangaroo rats, burrowing owls (which take over abandoned squirrel holes and, unlike other owls, hunt during the day), numerous species of songbirds, several species of snakes, crows and red tail hawks.
“These are some of the animals that the settlers would have encountered,” Oliveira said.
The best time of year to visit the park, she said, is between February and May. “If the season has been wet, it’s green grass and wildflowers in the spring, with a lot of animals running around.”
CAMPING AND PARKING
Parking is possible for about 175 vehicles and 10 buses. Some overflow is available for events.
Parking fees: $4 per vehicle; $18 for busload of 12-24 people; $36 for busload of 25 and more.
There are 15 paved sites for camping and 10 more in overflow areas of the park.
Camping fees: $10 per space.
Amenities include water (centrally located), a dump station and public bathrooms with showers.
TO LEARN MORE ABOUT ALLENSWORTH
Consider reading the book “Allensworth, the Freedom Colony — A California African American Township” by Alice C. Royal with Mickey Ellinger and Scott Braley. Royal is the granddaughter of Allensworth Pioneers. The book, by Heyday Books, retails for $17.95 and is an exhaustive work on the town, full of intimate tidbits and current and historical photographs. It is available at Russo’s Books. You may also ask about it at Colonel Allensworth State Historic Park.