California Legislature—2015–16 Regular Session

Assembly Concurrent Resolution No. 174

Introduced by Assembly Member Bigelow

April 21, 2016

Assembly Concurrent Resolution No. 174—Relative to the Buffalo Soldiers Memorial Highway.

LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL’S DIGEST

ACR 174, as introduced, Bigelow. Buffalo Soldiers Memorial Highway.

This measure would designate a specified portion of State Highway Route 41 from the Mariposa-Madera county line to the entrance of Yosemite National Park as the Buffalo Soldiers Memorial Highway. The measure would also request the Department of Transportation to determine the cost of appropriate signs showing this special designation and, upon receiving donations from nonstate sources covering the cost, to erect those signs.

Fiscal committee: yes.

WHEREAS, In 1866, the United States Congress created six
segregated regiments that were ultimately consolidated into four
African American regiments: the 9th and 10th Cavalry and the
24th and 25th Infantry; and

WHEREAS, African American army regiments that had been
dispatched westward fought in the Indian Wars and these soldiers
were eventually given the name Buffalo Soldiers by the Cheyenne
and other Plains Indians; and

WHEREAS, Although historians have recorded the service of
these Buffalo Soldiers on the western frontier, their service in some
national parks has been nearly forgotten; and

WHEREAS, The United States Army served as the official
administrator of Yosemite and Sequoia National Parks between
1891 and 1913. In that capacity, it helped create a model for park
management as we know it today; and

WHEREAS, Buffalo Soldiers were among the first park rangers
and back country rangers patrolling parts of the west; and

WHEREAS, Approximately 500 Buffalo Soldiers, mainly from
the 24th Infantry and 9th Cavalry, served in Yosemite National
Park and Sequoia National Park. Their duties ranged from evicting
poachers and timber thieves to extinguishing forest fires. They
also oversaw the construction of roads, trails, and other
infrastructure; and

WHEREAS, Commanding officers of the United States Army
became acting military superintendents for these national parks
with two troops of cavalry assigned to each park. Each troop was
made up of approximately 60 men; and

WHEREAS, The presence of these troops invigorated the local
economy and the soldiers acting as official stewards of park lands
brought a sense of law and order to the mountain wilderness; and

WHEREAS, Among their many accomplishments, the troops
assigned to Yosemite National Park oversaw the building of an
arboretum near the south fork of the Merced River in 1904. One
scholar considered the area to contain the first marked nature trail
in the United States’ national park system; now, therefore, be it

Resolved by the Assembly of the State of California, the Senate
thereof concurring, That the Legislature hereby designates that
portion of State Highway Route 41 from post mile 1.841 at the
Mariposa-Madera county line to post mile 4.918 at the entrance
to Yosemite National Park, as the Buffalo Soldiers Memorial
Highway; and be it further

Resolved, That the Department of Transportation is requested
to determine the cost of appropriate signs consistent with the
signing requirements for the state highway system showing this
special designation and, upon receiving donations from nonstate
sources sufficient to cover that cost, to erect those signs; and be it
further

Resolved, That the Chief Clerk of the Assembly transmit copies
of this resolution to the Director of Transportation and to the author
for appropriate distribution.