Allensworth Historic Town Site

The only town in California founded and governed by Black Americans was undone by water and a railroad. The Pacific Farming Company, which sold the colony its land, drilled fewer than half the wells it had promised, while it finished the wells at Alpaugh, a white town nearby; a lawsuit ended in a settlement that left Allensworth in debt. In July 1914 the Santa Fe moved its stop to Alpaugh, and in September the colonel was killed by a motorcycle in Monrovia. Arsenic was found in the wells in the 1960s. The state park came in 1974.

What the plaque says

Allensworth Established on August 3, 1908, the town of Allensworth was the vision of Lt. Colonel Allen Allensworth. Born in 1842, Allensworth escaped slavery during the Civil War and joined the Union Navy. In 1886, he became the chaplain of the 24th Infantry Regiment, retiring in 1906 as the highest ranking African American officer in the U.S. Army. On June 30, 1908, Colonel Allensworth, professor William Payne, Dr. W.H. Peck, Harry Mitchell, and J.W. Palmer formed the California Colony and Home Promoting Association. They purchased land at this location to build the town of Allensworth - the only town in California founded, built, governed, and populated entirely by African Americans. California State Historical Landmark No. 1047

Where it stands

More markers nearby

• Tulare Assembly Center — 23 mi
• Shafter Cotton Research Station — 24 mi
• Tule River Stage Station — 25 mi
• First Tule River Indian Reservation — 27 mi