Colonel Allensworth State Historic Park

In 1908 army chaplain and former slave Colonel Allen Allensworth and a group of African Americans decided to move west to create a community where they would live without discrimination and oppression. They chose a remote area in Tulare County with affordable and fertile farmland and plentiful water from underground aquifers flowing from the Sierra Nevada. The community thrived for several decades, but declined for various reasons beyond their control and residents moved away. The semirestored and preserved town of Allensworth is now a state historic park where you can get a sense of life during its heyday and of the indomitable spirits of those who helped make it happen.