Letitia Carson's Legacy: Healing Ourselves, Our Community, & Our Land

Honor Award

Student Community Service Award

Corvallis, Oregon, United States
Eva Kahn, Student ASLA; Carson Butler; Steven Garcia; Anna Epstein; Kailee Baumgardner; Emma LoCiero; Miriel Orhai; Mia Owen, Student ASLA; Carlos Lopez Toscano; Dahill Shelvy; Zachary King; Asa DeWitt, Student ASLA;
Faculty Advisors: Elle Stapleton, ASLA;
University of Oregon

Letitia Carson's Legacy

Letitia Carson was one of the first Black people to settle in Oregon in 1845. She was known by her community as a farmer, rancher, brewer, and midwife

Image Credit: Steven Garcia
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Letitia & Oregon

Letitia Carson’s story is embedded in Oregon’s complex history of race, gender, colonialism, displacement, and land.

Image Credit: Carson Butler
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The Carson Donation Land Claim

Letitia’s land is owned by a land grant university. In the future, this site will honor Letitia’s legacy while continuing to operate as a beef ranch.

Image Credit: Asa DeWitt, Eva Kahn, and Emma LoCiero
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Cattle: A Common Thread

The current agricultural use of the site reflects Letitia’s legacy as an early Oregon rancher.

Image Credit: Mia Owen, Miriel Orhai, Anna Epstein, and Emma LoCiero
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Community

Letitia Carson’s story is spreading through Oregon. Many community groups want to see the land become a place to celebrate Black Oregon history.

Image Credit: Asa DeWitt, Eva Kahn, and Emma LoCiero
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Engagement Process

Community and stakeholder interviews revealed a variety of challenges related to current site conditions and ideas for the site’s future programming.

Image Credit: Eva Kahn, Carson Butler, and studio instructor
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Design Considerations & Goals

Community outreach, site analysis, and design research lead to five goals that drive the future development of the site.

Image Credit: Miriel Orhai
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Masterplan

Design interventions are concentrated in the riparian area offering an aesthetically varied experience for while avoiding impacts to cattle pastures.

Image Credit: Carson Butler and Emma LoCiero
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Entry

A small, publicly-accessible loop path with wayside signage encourages year-round public visitation while limiting cattle operation impacts.

Image Credit: Mia Owen, Emma LoCiero, Miriel Orhai, and Carson Butler
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Memoir Path Phase 1

Interpretive signage along the path from the road to the homestead site tells Letitia’s story along the way.

Image Credit: Dahill Shelvy, Emma LoCiero, Miriel Orhai, and Carson Butler
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Outdoor Classroom

Local elementary school field trips and community events can happen year-round at the outdoor classroom and shade pavilion.

Image Credit: Eva Kahn, Emma LoCiero, Miriel Orhai, and Carson Butler
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Homestead Site

A gravel pad within rows of columnar apples is an abstracted representation of Letitia’s cabin. Future phasing could include a cabin reconstruction.

Image Credit: Anna Epstein, Emma LoCiero, Miriel Orhai, and Carson Butler
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Memoir Path Phase 2

The braided portion of the interpretive trail system focuses on ecological restoration, stewardship, and storytelling.

Image Credit: Steven Garcia, Emma LoCiero, Miriel Orhai, and Carson Butler
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Community Agriculture

Agricultural space managed by community partner organizations provides opportunities for Black and Indigenous empowerment through land stewardship.

Image Credit: Miriel Orhai, Emma LoCiero, and Carson Butler
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Land Lab

Experimental space for restoration, agriculture, art, and other university-led research initiatives expands access and honors the land.

Image Credit: Carson Butler, Emma LoCiero, and Miriel Orhai
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Graphic Novel

The graphic novel supports the Legacy Project’s mission to share Letitia’s story widely and educate people about her Soap Creek Valley Homestead.

Image Credit: Emma LoCiero, Carson Butler, and Miriel Orhai
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“

This is a strong and compelling visual storytelling with an inspired effort. Clear and beautiful- inspiring graphic language that tells a worthy story both of history, research and analysis and potential opportunities. Seems effective tools for advancing potential for fundraising and implementation. Great mission here and the quotes of people involved add a wonderful and personal touch.

”

- 2024 Awards Jury

Project Credits

Lauren Gwin
Associate Professor, Oregon State University, Letitia Carson Legacy Project

Larry Landis
Director of Special Collections & Archives, Oregon State University, Letitia Carson Legacy Project

Charlotte Epps
Oregon State University, Letitia Carson Legacy Project

Tyler White
Harvard University Graduate School of Design, Letitia Carson Legacy Project

Zachary Stocks
Oregon Black Pioneers, Letitia Carson Legacy Project

Black Oregon Land Trust
Black Oregon Land Trust, Letitia Carson Legacy Project

NAACP Linn Benton Branch
NAACP Linn Benton Branch, Letitia Carson Legacy Project

Mudbone Grown
Mudbone Grown, Letitia Carson Legacy Project

Letitia Carson Elementary School
Students & Teachers, Letitia Carson Elementary School

Soap Creek Beef Ranch
Oregon State University Research Beef Ranch

Project Statement

Letitia Carson’s Legacy utilizes the skills of landscape design to uplift several community organizations dedicated to honoring Letitia Carson, one of the first Black homesteaders in Oregon. This conceptual design made tangible the visions of our partners through the process of building authentic relationships and finding common ground through land stewardship. The final booklet has already been used to begin fundraising efforts, support grant applications, and gain approval to begin construction on Phase One. This studio addresses many challenging concepts, including the delicacy of telling a history embedded in narratives of race, gender, displacement, and colonialism, all while supporting current agricultural land use.

Project Narrative

Letitia Carson, a homesteader and pioneer, was one of the Black women to settle in Oregon. She and her white male partner, David Carson, arrived at their Soap Creek Valley homestead in 1845 after a five-month journey along the Oregon Trail. The Carson’s 320-acre Donation Land Claim sits in Benton County, 11 miles north of Corvallis, Oregon on the ancestral homelands of the Kalapuya people. Today, the Carson’s historic Donation Land Claim is owned by a land grant university and is under operation as an educational beef ranch. The site has never been developed, offering the opportunity to celebrate and commemorate Black and Indigenous history through the agricultural landscape.

Working with the Legacy Project — a partnership between the land grant university, four Black-led community organizations, and an array of community stakeholders — this studio helped to examine the entangled past and present narratives of this site with an eye towards future programming. Our design process was guided by the goal of building authentic relationships, with active communication and extensive community engagement over 6 months. We approached this process with respect and curiosity, listening to our partners’ needs, desires, feelings, and experiences, and balancing the diverse perspectives of numerous stakeholders. Together we came up with project goals connected by an overarching theme of healing – healing ourselves, healing our community, and healing the land.

Letitia’s story is one of remarkable perseverance. For seven years, Letitia tended to the land, growing crops and raising livestock. After her husband’s death in 1852, their neighbor was granted control of the Carson estate, evicting Letitia from her land. Forced to leave her home, she traveled south to settle in Douglas County where she was the first Black woman to receive a Homestead Act claim in Oregon. In 1854, Letitia filed two lawsuits against her neighbor, winning both in front of a white male jury despite numerous Black exclusion laws in the state at that time.

Letitia Carson’s Legacy works to highlight Letitia’s unsung story of resilience and bravery. Design elements reconnect Black and Indigenous communities to the land through education and stewardship and inspire reverence for Letitia’s story through Memoir Trails and an interpretive Homestead Site. The design works within the needs of the existing Beef Ranch, allowing for year-long rotational cattle grazing as currently scheduled. Instead of considering ranch operations as a limitation, this project celebrates current land-use by highlighting Letitia’s identity as a cattle rancher and linking past with present.

Our design proposal seeks to provide opportunities for Black and Indigenous community members, students, and allies to engage with Letitia’s land. This site could be the only place in the rural West for people to learn about Black pioneer history on the same land it happened on. This flexible space aims to provide opportunities for reflection, connect Black and Indigenous community members across generations, and raise awareness about Letitia’s story through place-based historical education.

Since the completion of our design proposals, the Legacy Project has received approval from university administrators to begin work on Phase 1 of the project. The first annual Letitia Carson Symposium was held on the site in May 2024 to unveil this new design vision and celebrate the future of Letitia Carson’s legacy.

Plant List:

Camassia quamash
Solidago canadensis ssp. elongata
Dichelostemma congesta
Allium acuminatum
Wyethia angustifolia
Grindella integrifolia
Lupinus sulpherus ssp. kincaidii
Lomatium spp.
Delphinium leucophaeum
Aquilegia formosa
Prunella vulgaris
Madia elegans
Sidalcea campestris
Festuca idahoensis
Koeleria macrantha
Pseudoroegneria spicata
Asclepias speciosa
Brodiaea elegans
Calochortus tolmiei
Castilleja tenuis
Clarkia purpurea
Sambucus cerulea
Deschampsia caespitosa
Quercus garryana
Malus domesticus
Alnus rhombifolia