Lane County, Oregon
| Lane County, Oregon | |
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Lane County Courthouse in Eugene, built in 1898 and demolished in 1959.
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 Location in the U.S. state of Oregon |
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 Oregon's location in the U.S. |
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| Founded | January 29, 1851 |
| Seat | Eugene |
| Largest city | Eugene |
| Area | |
| • Total | 4,722 sq mi (12,230 km2) |
| • Land | 4,553 sq mi (11,792 km2) |
| • Water | 169 sq mi (438 km2), 3.6% |
| Population (est.) | |
| • (2015) | 362,895 |
| • Density | 77/sq mi (30/km²) |
| Congressional district | 4th |
| Time zone | Pacific: UTC-8/-7 |
| Website | www |
Lane County is a county located in the U.S. state of Oregon. As of the 2010 census, the population was 351,715, making it the fourth-most populous county in Oregon. The county seat is Eugene. It is named in honor of Joseph Lane, Oregon's first territorial governor.
Lane County comprises the Eugene, OR Metropolitan Statistical Area. It is the third largest MSA in Oregon, and the 144th largest in the country.
Lane County was established on January 29, 1851. It was created from the southern part of Linn County and the portion of Benton County east of Umpqua County. It was named after the territory's first governor, Joseph Lane. Originally it covered all of southern Oregon east to the Rocky Mountains and south to the California border. When the Territorial Legislature created Lane County, it did not designate a county seat. In the 1853 election, four sites competed for the designation, of which the "Mulligan donation" received a majority vote; however, since it was contiguous to the "Skinner claim" both became part of the new county seat known as Eugene.
In 1846 Elijah Bristow and his wife, the former Susannah Gabbart, had become the first white settlers to build a claim cabin within the present-day boundaries of Lane County, near Pleasant Hill. They had crossed the plains to California in the previous year, and came north with Eugene F. Skinner, Captain Felix Scott, and William Dodson. As their party entered the valley between the Coast Fork and Middle Fork of the Willamette River, Bristow gazed around and exclaimed, "What a pleasant hill! Here is my home!"
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