Colonel Allensworth State Historic Park

Earlimart, California

Self-governing community founded by a former slave.

Allen Allensworth was born a slave in 1842 and dreamed from an early age of being a free man.  He escaped during the Civil War and in 1866, he joined the Army and became the first African American to serve as military pastor.

In 1906, he and his family moved to California to establish their own self-governing community and two years he founded the town of Allensworth near Bakersfield.  After his death in 1914, the town began to decline and was abandoned during the Great Depression.  It was years later that Cornelius Ed Pope led the successful efforts to the turn the town into a state park.  Pope had lived there as a child and worked in the parks and recreation field.  Many of the buildings were rebuilt and there is also a visitors center.