Genesis of a City

Genesis of a City. . (The following two of four interpretive displays located in this park highlight Eugene Skinner):, (First Display), Eugene and Mary Skinner emigrated in 1845 to California, and then moved north to settle temporarily in Polk County. The Skinners selected a Donation Land Claim here at the head of the Willamette Valley in 1846 and Eugene, together with hired hands, built a small, one-room cabin. The Skinners moved into their “new home in the far off west” in May 1847, and “for 4 months less 3 days,” Eugene recalled, “Mary never saw the face of a White woman, or child excep[t] our own....”, Like many pioneers, the Skinner were industrious. They hired men to till the prairie and plant wheat, established an orchard, and in April 1851, Eugene Skinner began platting a town. From modest beginnings at Skinner’s Butte, the city of Eugene emerged as the largest town in the upper Willamette Valley., (Second Display), Skinner's Cabin , A Place of Refuge. , ...Oct 1846 moved into the House…. On the 8th day of November/46 I left the House for Rickreall where I had left my wife at which place I wintered and on the 26th day of May 1847 moved into this House with my family and all of my effects…. As to the house J.Q. Thornton Esqr with all the Emigration of /46 that came the Southern or Applegate route can testify…. One Mr. Collins of that emigration wintered in my house and many of them leaving their things and cattle here all winter...., Eugene Skinner , Letter to the Surveyor General of Oregon (1851), A small pole cabin… the first sign of civilization we had seen in traveling 2,000 miles. The little cabin, without door or window, looked homelike, indeed. Here several families, whose teams had become exhausted, were going to abandon their wagons and were making canoes to make the rest of the journey by water., Tolbert Carter , Recollection of 1846, ...we left our cattle on Eugene Skinner’s donation land claim, where the city of Eugene is now located. Our oxen were so weak we had to leave them there, packing in what goods we could carry. As well as the women and children, on our mules and going on to Luckiamute…. My brother Jim, better know in later years as Judge Collins, with a man named Turnidge, stayed that winter in Eugene Skinner’s unfinished cabin to look after their cattle., Frank M. Collins , Recollections of 1846