<p><strong>During the American Civil War, some 180,000 black men served as soldiers in the United States Colored Troops (USCT) of the Union Army. Many veterans of the USCT would later form the first all-African American US Army Regiments, who would come to be known as the "Buffalo Soldiers" in the American West.</strong><strong> Eventually, their trail would lead them right here to California, where they would serve as some of the first park rangers in the state's most iconic and celebrated national parks. They operated as park police, wildland firefighters and public works construction crews- building key infrastructure in the years before the bureaucratic organization of the state and national park systems. Their service had a remarkable impact upon the history and development of the state's land conservation movement. Beginning at their headquarters in the Presidio of San Francisco, now part of the Golden Gate National Recreation Area, the California Buffalo Soldier Trail includes Angel Island State Park, Yosemite Valley and Mariposa Grove, the Presidio of Monterey, Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks, Colonel Allensworth State Historic Park, and Camp Locket in Campo, California- the last of the Buffalo Soldier forts in the American West. </strong></p>