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() is the second largest city in the U.S. State of Oregon and the county seat of Lane County. It is located at the south end of the Willamette Valley, at the confluence of the McKenzie and Willamette rivers, about 50 miles (86 km) east of the Oregon Coast. According to the official 2008 population figures Eugene is the second largest city in the state of Oregon, with an estimated population of 154,620, and center of the third largest metropolitan population. Eugene has long been the state's second largest city after Portland, but was briefly overtaken by Salem in terms of population, between 2005 to 2007. Eugene has since overtaken Salem as Oregon's second largest city.
Eugene is home to the University of Oregon. The city is also noted for its natural beauty, activist political leanings, alternative lifestyles, recreational opportunities (especially bicycling, rafting, and kayaking), and focus on the arts. Eugene's motto is "The World's Greatest City of the Arts and Outdoors." It is also referred to as "Track Town, USA," the "Emerald City" and "The People's Republic of Eugene." The Nike corporation had its beginnings in Eugene.
Eugene is named after its founder, Eugene Franklin Skinner. In 1846, Skinner erected the first cabin in the area. It was used as a trading post and was registered as an official post office on January 8, 1850. At this time the location was known as Skinner's Mudhole. Skinner founded Eugene in 1862 and later ran a ferry service across the Willamette River where the Ferry Street Bridge now stands.
The first major educational institution in the area was Columbia College. It was founded a few years earlier than the University of Oregon. It fell victim to two major fires in four years, and after the second fire the college decided not to rebuild again. The part of south Eugene known as College Hill was the former location of Columbia College. There is no college there today.
The town raised the initial funding to start a public university, which later became the University of Oregon, with the hope of turning the small town into a cultural center of learning. In 1872, the Legislative Assembly passed a bill creating the University of Oregon as a state institution. Eugene bested the nearby town of Albany in the competition for the state university. In 1873, community member J. H. D. Henderson donated the hilltop land for the campus, overlooking the city.
The University first opened in 1876 with the regents electing the first faculty, and naming John Wesley Johnson as president. The first students registered on October 16, 1876. The first building was completed in 1877; it was named Deady Hall in honor of the first Board of Regents President and community leader Judge Matthew P. Deady.)
The University of Oregon has been a leader in diversity since its very beginning. Its inaugural class included two Japanese students.
Eugene is the home of Oregon's largest publicly owned water and power utility, the Eugene Water and Electric Board (EWEB). EWEB got its start in the first decade of the 20th century, after a typhoid epidemic was traced to the groundwater supply. The city of Eugene condemned the private utility and began treating river water (first the Willamette; later the McKenzie) for domestic use. EWEB got into the electric business when power was needed for the water pumps. Excess electricity was used for street lighting.