A farmer and the State of California reached a deal on Monday that will prevent two large industrial dairy operations from being built near Colonel Allensworth State Historic Park, the site of the state’s only town founded and operated by African-Americans.

The California Department of Parks and Recreation has agreed to pay $3.5 million to the farmer, Samuel Etchegaray, for his guarantee not to establish two large dairies on land he owns near the park in Tulare County.

The park commemorates Col. Allen Allensworth, an escaped Kentucky slave who went on to become the highest-ranking black Army officer in the nation, who founded the town in 1908.