BILL NUMBER: ACR 174	INTRODUCED
	BILL TEXT


INTRODUCED BY   Assembly Member Bigelow

                        APRIL 21, 2016

   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.