Barely able to breath through the wall of summer humidity, the cloud of gun smoke and the heft of their thick, wool uniforms, American troops led by Theodore Roosevelt steeled themselves for a surge against the Spanish forces near Santiago de Cuba at the southern tip of the Cuban island.
At Roosevelt’s signal, the combination of his volunteer Rough Riders and all-Black Buffalo Soldier regiments charged up Kettle Hill and planted an American flag, claiming it for the United States. They overtook nearby San Juan Hill that same day — July 1, 1898 — again planting the Stars and Stripes flag in victory at the top.
The battle served as a turning point in the Spanish-American War. And after it was over, one of those American flags was returned not to the Rough Riders but to the regiment to which it belonged: the all-Black 24th Infantry Regiment, based out of Fort Douglas in Salt Lake City.
Most people don’t realize that the Battle of San Juan Hill is a Utah story, said Rep. Sandra Hollins, D-Salt Lake City. Nor are they aware that Buffalo Soldiers lived in and influenced the culture of areas throughout Utah since even before it became a state. But she’s hoping a new Buffalo Soldier Trail — which will be unveiled this weekend with activities in Price, Vernal and Salt Lake City — can bring those stories to light.
Utah has a “rich history that is often not told and often forgotten,” Hollins said. “So, we want to make people aware.”
The roughly 565-mile driving “trail” is a collaboration among Hollins, the State Historic Preservation Office and the Sema Hadithi African American Heritage and Culture Foundation. It strings together historic Buffalo Soldier sites from Moab — where the all-Black 9th Calvary (one of two all-Black cavalry units) made its first expedition into Utah Territory in 1878 — to Fort Duchesne near Vernal, where that same cavalry was stationed from 1886-1900.
“Our hope” an excerpt from the trail’s website, which will launch Friday, says, “is that this heritage trail will provide travelers with a unique opportunity to experience history in the place where it was actually made, and, from that, gain a richer understanding of, and appreciation for, the people who lived it.”
(Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture) Black Army troops stationed at Fort Douglas in Salt Lake City.
This weekend’s events include simultaneous presentations Friday in Vernal, Price and Salt Lake City by the project management team. Saturday features a group tour in which participants will drive from Fort Douglas, where the 24th Infantry arrived in 1896 (the year Utah became a state), to Strawberry Reservoir, the site of the “Tin War.” The Tin War was a military training exercise conducted in preparation for the Spanish-American War that, per the Utah State Historic Preservation Office, included more than 900 infantry, cavalry and artillery soldiers from Fort Douglas, Fort Duchesne and Wyoming’s Fort Bridger.
According to Robert Burch, the founder and executive director of Sema Hadithi, it marked the first time the United States government held a joint training exercise.
“That’s the first time it ever happened in United States history,” he said. “And it is in the Salt Lake Valley, [in] Utah, and included in that cavalry were Buffalo Soldiers.”
Stories like that, it turns out, could be found in most corners of the state.
Changing the narrative
(J.F. Jarvis via Library of Congress) Black Army soldiers involved in the Cuban campaign of the Spanish American War, photographed circa 1899.
Burch learned of the depth of the Buffalo Soldiers’ impact on Utah in 2022 when his organization worked with the state branch of the National Juneteenth Foundation on a veterans exhibit. Though the exhibit was meant to last only six months, Burch and his wife saw an opportunity for expanding knowledge and tourism by permanently connecting Buffalo Soldier historic sites.
So, they took what they knew to Chris Merritt, Utah’s state historic preservation officer, and asked him to do his own digging. Merritt knew of the Tin War and the Buffalo Soldiers’ presence at Strawberry Valley from working at the site as an archeologist with the Uinta-Wasatch-Cache National Forest. But there was so much more than that.
“We were able to find all of these different stakeholders around the state who had some little small story of the soldiers,” Burch said. “So, that is what turned into the heritage trail. We realized that we had a story that people can follow from Salt Lake City to Strawberry Valley to Vernal to Price, Helper, Moab, Nine Mile Canyon, Gate Canyon, just all of these places that no one ever put together because everybody had a little piece of it.”
For the most part, the Buffalo Soldiers — four regiments of which were formed, two infantry and two cavalry — were sent to the frontier to protect the overland mail routes and telegraph lines from saboteurs. Per the Buffalo Soldier Trail website, they were also charged with monitoring members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints for signs of disloyalty or rebellion during the Civil War.
Merritt said he learned that locals distrusted the soldiers at first, but that those misgivings mostly faded with time and a shared interest: namely, baseball. He said the 24th and 9th regiments staged something of a World Series in Salt Lake City in 1897.
“Baseball games, parties, the band of the 24th Infantry at Fort Douglas — it was a really interesting the way that the two communities merged,” Merritt said. “And people started to be like, ‘Oh, they’re just people,’ versus that fear of ‘What are they bringing to our community?’”
Burch said the stories found along the trail have the power to change “the narrative of what a Buffalo Soldier is.”
“It also changes the narrative of who we are in Utah,” said Hollins, who read a citation of recognition for the project on the state House floor in February. “People assume that we don’t have a history, that there is no Black history, and there is.”
More to come
(Frank J. Haynes via the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture) A Buffalo Soldier regiment escorting a stage-coach circa 1890.
For now, the Buffalo Soldier Trail consists of eight sites: Moab, Price-Helper, Nine Mile and Gate canyons, Fort Duchesne, Vernal, the Carter Military Road, Strawberry Valley and Fort Douglas. Only a few of the sites have been fitted with wayside markers. Information on the rest can be found in a SHPO-produced pamphlet that will be available at museums, libraries and local visitor centers. The trail website also contains an abundance of information.
SHPO keeps an eye on the sites through its Utah Cultural Site Stewardship Program. However, Burch said the Buffalo Soldier Trail project itself is entirely privately funded.
Burch said the plan is to continually update those resources as more stories and information about Utah’s Buffalo Soldiers roll in. Eventually, he would like to connect Utah’s trail to historic Buffalo Soldier sites in Colorado, Arizona and New Mexico. But what they have now — a flag that marked the capture of San Juan Hill during the Spanish-American War, for example — he believes is more than enough to also capture the attention of history buffs and tourists.
“The biggest thing is that the rest of the nation learns about this,” Burch said. “Because, again, there are men and women throughout the country who celebrate these soldiers and who would visit Utah’s tourists if they knew that these stories were here.”
