Date: October 9, 2009
Contact: Hugh Vickery (DOI), 202-208-6416
Scott Gediman (NPS) (209)372-0248
Salazar to Tour Yosemite National Park, Attend
Award-Winning Buffalo Soldier Program

YOSEMITE NATIONAL PARK, Ca. – Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar will join new National Park Service Director Jon Jarvis for a tour of Yosemite National Park and a presentation of Park Ranger Shelton Johnson’s award-winning Buffalo Soldier Program on Saturday October 10, 2009.

In his program, Shelton portrays one of the U.S. Army’s Buffalo Soldiers, a regiment of African American soldiers created by Congress in 1866 who served largely in the western United States. Ken Burns featured Shelton prominently in his recent documentary series, “The National Parks: America’s Best Idea.”

Buffalo Soldiers were among the first park rangers and backcountry rangers to patrol parts of the West. Approximately 500 Buffalo Soldiers served in Yosemite, Sequoia, and General Grant (now Kings Canyon) National Parks with duties that ranged from evicting poachers and timber thieves to extinguishing forest fires.

Each spring, regimens rode on horseback from the Presidio in San Francisco to these three California parks to enforce the rules and regulations. In addition to preventing poaching and logging, Buffalo Soldiers served as interpreters of the parks, educating park visitors about the features of each park and the reasons why they were protected.

“We owe a debt of gratitude to all the Buffalo Soldiers whose service and sacrifice allowed for the permanent protection of America’s great western parks ,” Salazar said. “If not for the Buffalo Soldiers, and their pioneering efforts to enforce the rule of law in our young national parks, places like Yosemite and Sequoia would not be what they are today. Their story is a reminder of our own obligation to invest in the future of these national treasures, and to protect them for all time.”

Salazar and Jarvis also will discuss plans for projects to be completed in the park under the President’s economic recovery package. Overall, the National Park Service will invest $7.5 million at Yosemite on projects including:

• Installing Renewable Energy Solar Equipment at El Portal Complex
• Painting Exterior of Historic Public Use Buildings Park-Wide
• Replacing Roofs on Multiple Historic Buildings
• Purchasing Two Hybrid Electric Shuttle Buses

In addition, the Department of Transportation is undertaking two major projects in Yosemite with funds from the recovery package:

• Redesign and renovation of the Chinquapin Intersection on the Wawona Road including road alignment, guard walls, repaving, and new restrooms
• Rehabilitation of a portion of the Glacier Point Road, one of the most highly used roads leading to the spectacular viewpoint of Yosemite Valley

Afterward, Salazar and Jarvis will attend a reception at the old Superintendent’s House (Residence 1) that is open to the media.


Who: Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar
National Park Service Director Jon Jarvis

What: Tour and Buffalo Soldier Program

When: Hike with Students, 9:30 a.m., PDT October 10, 2009
Buffalo Soldier Program 10:30, PDT
Reception: 12 p.m., PDT

Dónde: Yosemite National Park Visitor Center, Yosemite, CA.