Friday, Dec. 25, 2009
Group will honor Buffalo Soldiers
By Corey Pride / cpride@losbanosenterprise.com
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ReprintMembers of the Los Baños Buffalo Soldiers 9th and 10th Cavalry Association met Dec. 11 with various park service, Presidio Trust and Santa Clara County officials to begin to organize efforts to honor, and educate the public about, a group of widely unknown veterans.
The association wants to have the local route the soldiers traveled be named an historical trail. The group is also pressing to get Col. Charles Young posthumously promoted to general.
Young was the third African American to graduate from West Point. After graduation he served with the Buffalo Soldiers, an all-black regiment. Young was the highest ranking black officer in the U.S. Army from 1894 to 1922.
The Buffalo Soldiers were tasked with the job of rebuilding the country during the Reconstruction era. While patrolling the Western Frontier, including territory that has since become national park land, the Buffalo Soldiers camped in Los Baños for one night, where Overland Avenue and Mercey Springs Road intersect, before making their way to the Presidio, according to local historians.
Geneva Brett, an association member, said representatives from her group traveled to the Bay Area to hear what the National Park Service is planning and coordinating their efforts in accordance.
Brett said the federal organization will open a new park in the Golden Gate National Recreation Area in May.
"Basically what we're talking about with them is having a camp site overnight and riding out the Lombard Gate," Brett said.
After camping at the park May 19 some association members will leave from the Presidio Lombard Gate on a journey recreating the Buffalo Soldiers 1903 route, which took 16 days.
Brett said the National Park Service wants to hold a ceremony commemorating the recreation of the Buffalo Soldiers departure. She said the commander in chief will be invited partly because he was in attendance more than 100 years ago.
"We will be inviting the president," Brett said. "I don't know whether he will show up, but he will be invited."
Dave Ofwono, another Buffalo Soldier 9th and 10th Cavalry Association member, said some young people who have portrayed Buffalo Soldiers in the past and some park rangers and mounted park police will join the Los Baños group at different points along the trail.
Brett is planning to coordinate efforts with school districts in other cities on the trail--which besides Los Baños includes San Jose, San Bruno, Palo Alto, Dos Palos, and Firebaugh among others. Brett would like to have schools hold contests based on information about the Buffalo Soldiers. Winners could be acknowledged as the association passed through the cities, Brett said.
On May 26 the contingent will arrive in Los Baños. Brett said speakers are already being lined up for the event.
Guy Washington of the National Park Service said the new park will focus heavily on attracting a relatively untapped demographic.
"The N.P.S. is looking for ways to link up parks that is not necessarily by geography, but rather look to link up areas by theme," Washington said. "It's survival. We recognize that the people who (traditionally) go to parks are getting older."
Washington said the National Park Service cannot lobby Congress on behalf of Col. Young or establishing an historical trail, but he appreciates what the Los Baños Association is doing. Washington said the National Park Service would like an historical trail in place by 2016, the 100th anniversary of the park system.
Enterprise reporter Corey Pride can be reached by phone at (209) 388-6563, or by e-mail at cpride@losbanosenterprise.com