James M. Foisia Park

The story

The ground was originally named General Winfield Scott Park around 1943 by the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors. James M. Foisia arrived as a recreation leader sometime before the 1990s and became Senior Recreation Center Supervisor, earning respect as a mentor to youth and an advocate for Samoan community development. In 2018, the Carson City Council unanimously voted to rename the park in his honor, posthumously—Foisia had passed away in 2005. For decades, especially from the 1960s onward when Samoan families arrived in Carson following a 1951 U.S. Navy closure in American Samoa, this 11-to-13-acre field became the cultural heart of what is now one of the largest Samoan communities in the United States. Weekends feature families gathering with coolers of traditional food, elders under shade trees, children playing sports until sunset. The park hosts the annual Samoan Heritage Festival and serves as a malae (traditional meeting ground) for celebrations, ceremonies, and community counsel.

Everything that was here

• 2018–present · still open

  James M. Foisia ParkPark

  The park's name changed in 2018 to honor James M. Foisia, a Samoan community leader who spent decades at this ground, but for most of Carson's residents it remains Scott Park.

  See the map in 2019 →
• 1943–2018

  General Winfield Scott ParkPark

  Around 1943, the county named a new park after a Civil War general, and for 75 years the name stuck—even as the neighborhood around it transformed completely.

  See the map in 1944 →

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Nearby history