Among Eugene’s earliest documented African American residents (c. 1893), Wiley Griffon drove Eugene’s first horse drawn streetcar system and later worked as a janitor at the University of Oregon. He remarkably owned a home near the Riverfront at what is presently E. 4th and Mill during a time when African American people were excluded by law from living not only in the city limits, but in the state of Oregon. Griffon was one of very few African American’s in the Eugene area at that time so was not seen as a “problem” to white Eugene. Later when more African American’s started to immigrate to the area in the 1940s during WWII to fill wartime jobs, white Eugene enforced those exclusion laws more stringently leaving slim options for African American home ownership in Eugene.

With a history of world class runners and its embrace of the running community, Eugene has long been known as Track Town, USA.

Naknak is the indigenous Kalapuya word for “duck.” *There are three distinct Kalapuya languages, and this is an anglicized version of the word from one of the languages.

A unit of power equal to one million watts; a nod to the site's history with EWEB, the City's electric and water utility.

Lotte Streisinger (1927-2017) embodies many aspects of our city. She was a well-known potter and artist known for her generosity and collegiality. During an important period in Eugene's growth she advocated for and administered the selection of much of our public art (at the Hult, the Airport, the University) and appeared weekly on KLCC hosting the Visible City program. She was the founder of the Eugene Saturday Market, which sprang from an annual art sale she founded. She was a fierce peace activist. She wrote two books, 'From the Sidelines', on the founding of the University's greatest contribution to modern science, The Institute for Molecular Biology, and “The Potter and the Muse’ about her life as an artist. Born in Germany, she fled with her family in 1937. In America she met another refugee, the brilliant scientist George Streisinger who died in 1984. At her death she requested donations be made to Northwest Center for Alternatives to Pesticides (NCAP), a cause she had long supported.