■ The Chronicle is featuring excerpts from the “Historic Atlas of Springfield, Oregon,” a 200-page collection being developed by the Springfield History Museum’s History Atlas Subcommittee. This week, we look at transportation. Read the kickoff article here and the first set of historical excerpts here.
In the early 1900s, Springfield started to industrialize. Transportation systems were developing, and people were participating in exhilarating recreational activities that come with it. Local buttes, floodplains, prairies, rivers, and other resources all determined where Springfield’s present-day Main Street, neighborhoods, and industrial centers have developed.
River ferries turned into wooden and then steel bridges. Rail lines, and telephone services came to town. Mills and schools were constructed, and by 1911, the first automobile dealership opened on the southeast corner of Main and Mill streets.
In 1929, Springfield Airport opened, and during its prime, it was used for transportation, tourism, pilot education, forestry and agricultural work, and recreational activities.
The Springfield Airport was purchased for $700,000 — nearly $13 million today and was near Olympic Street between 21st and 28th Streets, where several large retail establishments, such as Walmart, stand today.
The airport was closed to the public in 1972 and abandoned after developers learned of extensive contamination from crop-dusted planes containing DDT, a highly toxic manufactured pesticide.
Events like air shows, recreational flying, skydiving, and gliding became popular. Kelly Butte in West Springfield provided a steep slope for thrill-seeking glider plane enthusiasts. It was home to the Western Oregon Glider Club, which held weekly practices for beginners and advanced flyers. The club only had one glider, which members shared, until membership expanded, and they purchased another.
Beginners practiced on a static glider without wings to understand the steering mechanism. The pilot sat in a chair at the front of the glider and used the control stick to steer through rising air currents. The butte’s bowl-shaped slope enabled flights regardless of wind direction.
While some used it as a launching spot, others enjoyed the butte from the ground. Motorcyclists claimed Kelly Butte as their hill for motorcycle hill-climbing races. Hill-climbing competitions were a popular community event that attracted audiences and coverage from local newspapers.
Bill Davis — who was also Springfield’s Chief of Police in the late 1920s — is credited with pioneering the sport of hill climbing on the West Coast. He was a well-known motorcyclist and the first competitor to top the east face of the butte in the annual motorcycle hill-climbing event in 1929, where he tackled the 350-foot climb in 9.2 seconds.
Next week, The Chronicle examines the history of Glenwood.
Do you know more about this topic or have other stories about Springfield to share? Contact McGraw at [email protected] to help fill in the blanks of local history.
This reporter is supported by the Catalyst Journalism Project at the University of Oregon School of Journalism and Communication.
Timeline: Springfield’s bridges
1875: The Briggs Ferry was replaced by a covered wooden carriage bridge, roughly where the Union Pacific Railroad now stands.
1890: Steel wagon bridge was constructed to replace a wooden bridge, which had washed out twice due to devastating floods. The original crossing point into Springfield was south of the present-day bridge locations. The area along the Pacific Highway where the wagon and railroad bridges historically crossed into Springfield became known as “Springfield Junction.”
1900: Hayden Bridge installed.
1907: Southern Pacific Railroad Company constructed the steel railroad bridge still in use today.
1929: Streetcar bridge to carry passengers between Main St. and Eugene, crossing from Springfield Junction to the intersection of Mill and South A Streets, the streetcar traveled one block north on Mill St., then headed east along Main St. for ten blocks demolished. An automobile bridge was constructed in Springfield just north of the streetcar bridge site. The new bridge allowed automobiles to cross from Franklin Boulevard directly to Main Street for the first time. Today, one concrete pier of the old streetcar bridge is still visible near the Island Park boat ramp.
1953: The South A bypass was built, and the second automobile bridge was installed to create two separate one-way streets to address traffic through downtown.
1953: I-5 Highway bridge was built, routing traffic away from the Pacific Highway through Glenwood.
