Eugene Oregon History & Facts

Eugene is a city in the U.S. state of Oregon, in the Pacific Northwest. It is at the southern end of the Willamette Valley, near the confluence of the McKenzie and Willamette rivers, about 50 miles (80 km) east of the Oregon Coast.

As of the 2010 census, Eugene had a population of 156,185; it is the county seat of Lane County and the state's third most populous city after Portland and Salem, though recent state estimates suggest its population may have surpassed Salem's. The Eugene-Springfield, Oregon metropolitan statistical area (MSA) is the 146th largest metropolitan statistical area in the US and the third-largest in the state, behind the Portland Metropolitan Area and the Salem Metropolitan Area. The city's population for 2019 was estimated to be 172,622 by the U.S. Census.

Eugene is home to the University of Oregon, Bushnell University, and Lane Community College. The city is noted for its natural environment, recreational opportunities (especially bicycling, running/jogging, rafting, and kayaking), and focus on the arts, along with its history of civil unrest, protests, and green activism. Eugene's official slogan is "A Great City for the Arts and Outdoors". It is also referred to as the "Emerald City" and as "Track Town, USA". The Nike corporation had its beginnings in Eugene. In 2022, the city will host the 18th Track and Field World Championships.

The first people to settle in the Eugene area were known as the Kalapuyans, also written Calapooia or Calapooya. They made "seasonal rounds," moving around the countryside to collect and preserve local foods, including acorns, the bulbs of the wapato and camas plants, and berries. They stored these foods in their permanent winter village. When crop activities waned, they returned to their winter villages and took up hunting, fishing, and trading. They were known as the Chifin Kalapuyans and called the Eugene area where they lived "Chifin", sometimes recorded as "Chafin" or "Chiffin".

Other Kalapuyan tribes occupied villages that are also now within Eugene city limits. Pee-you or Mohawk Calapooians, Winefelly or Pleasant Hill Calapooians, and the Lungtum or Long Tom. They were close-neighbors to the Chifin, intermarried, and were political allies. Some authorities suggest the Brownsville Kalapuyans (Calapooia Kalapuyans) were related to the Pee-you. It is likely that since the Santiam had an alliance with the Brownsville Kalapuyans that the Santiam influence also went as far at Eugene.

According to archeological evidence, the ancestors of the Kalapuyans may have been in Eugene for as long as 10,000 years. In the 1800s their traditional way of life faced significant changes due to devastating epidemics and settlement, first by French fur traders and later by an overwhelming number of American settlers.

According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of 43.74 square miles (113.29 km2), of which 43.72 square miles (113.23 km2) is land and 0.02 square miles (0.05 km2) is water. Eugene is at an elevation of 426 feet (130 m).

To the north of downtown is Skinner Butte. Northeast of the city is the Coburg Hills. Spencer Butte is a prominent landmark south of the city. Mount Pisgah is southeast of Eugene and includes Mount Pisgah Arboretum and Howard Buford Recreation Area, a Lane County Park. Eugene is surrounded by foothills and forests to the south, east, and west, while to the north the land levels out into the Willamette Valley and consists of mostly farmland.

The Willamette and McKenzie Rivers run through Eugene and its neighboring city, Springfield. Another important stream is Amazon Creek, whose headwaters are near Spencer Butte. The creek discharges into the Long Tom River north Fern Ridge Reservoir, maintained for winter flood control by the Army Corps of Engineers. The Eugene Yacht Club hosts a sailing school and sailing regattas at Fern Ridge during summer months.

Famous Peoples From Eugene Oregon

Stanley G. Love

Stanley Glen Love (born June 8, 1965) is an American scientist and a NASA astronaut from Oregon.

Love was born on June 8, 1965 to Glen A. Love and Rhoda M. Love in San Diego, California. However, Love has stated he considers Eugene, Oregon to be his hometown. Love graduated from Winston Churchill High School in Eugene, Oregon, in 1983. He received a Bachelor of Science degree in physics from Harvey Mudd College in Claremont, California (1987), and M.S. (1989) and Ph.D degrees (1993) from the University of Washington in Astronomy.

Love joined NASA in June 1998 and started training in August of that year. Love completed both basic astronaut candidate training and advanced training. He served as a CAPCOM (spacecraft communicator) in Mission Control for Station Expeditions 1 through 7 and for Space Shuttle missions STS-104, STS-108, STS-112[1] and STS-132. In 2008, Love participated in his first spaceflight with the crew of STS-122 aboard Space Shuttle Atlantis and logged over 306 hours in space, including two EVAs. The mission began on February 7, 2008, and ended on February 20, 2008.

On September 19, 2011, NASA announced that Love would participate in the NEEMO 15 undersea exploration mission in October 2011 from the DeepWorker 2000 submersible. The DeepWorker is a small submarine used as an underwater stand-in for the Space Exploration Vehicle, which might someday be used to explore the surface of an asteroid. However, because NEEMO 15 ended early due to the approach of Hurricane Rina, Love was not able to pilot the DeepWorker during the mission. Love was able to pilot the DeepWorker during the NEEMO 16 mission in June 2012, during which he experienced an interesting incident when his submersible became pinned against the bottom of the support vessel Liberty Star.

As of May 2019, Love is a management astronaut which means he is no longer eligible for flight assignment. Love works as the Deputy Chief of the Astronaut Office's Rapid Prototying Laboratory, developing cockpit displays and controls for Orion and forthcoming spacecraft.

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