Editing Lane County, Oregon (section)

==History==
Lane County was established on January 29, 1851. It was created from the southern part of [[Linn County, Oregon|Linn County]] and the portion of [[Benton County, Oregon|Benton County]] east of [[Umpqua County, Oregon|Umpqua County]]. It was named after the [[Oregon Territory|territory]]'s first [[List of Governors of Oregon#Governors of the Territory of Oregon|governor]], [[Joseph Lane]].<ref>{{Cite book |last=Gannett, Henry |url=https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_9V1IAAAAMAAJ |title=The Origin of Certain Place Names in the United States |publisher=[[United States Government Publishing Office|Government Printing Office]] |year=1905 |page=[https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_9V1IAAAAMAAJ/page/n179 180]}}</ref> Originally it covered all of southern Oregon east to the [[Cascade 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, Oregon|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, Oregon|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.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Walling |first=Albert G. |url=http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~orlane/history/histbris.htm |title=Illustrated History of Lane County Oregon |publisher=Printing house of A. G. Walling |year=1884 |location=Lane County, Oregon |page=476 |asin=B009QBROJE}}</ref> As their party entered the valley between the [[Coast Fork Willamette River|Coast Fork]] and [[Middle Fork Willamette River|Middle Fork]] of the [[Willamette River]], Bristow gazed around and exclaimed, "What a pleasant hill! Here is my home!"<ref>{{Cite book |last=Friedman |first=Ralph |url=https://archive.org/details/insearchofwester00frie |title=In Search of Western Oregon |publisher=Caxton Press |year=1990 |isbn=0-87004-332-3 |location=Caldwell, Idaho |page=[https://archive.org/details/insearchofwester00frie/page/707 707] |quote=Elijah Bristow. |url-access=registration}}</ref>

In 1852, John Diamond and William Macy led an exploration party to survey a shortcut for the [[Oregon Trail]] across the [[Cascade Range]]. The shortcut over the [[Willamette Pass]] became known as the Free Emigrant Road. Around 250 wagons with 1,027 people left the usual Oregon Trail route at [[Vale, Oregon]], and followed Elijah Elliott through the central [[High Desert (Oregon)|Oregon high desert]]. This became known as the [[Elliott Cutoff]]. When they reached what is now [[Bend, Oregon|Bend]], they sent scouts to the south to look for the road. Once settlers in the [[Willamette Valley]] discovered the emigrants were coming, a huge rescue effort was launched as the emigrants were out of supplies and in dire condition. The emigrants of this wagon train doubled the population of Lane County in 1853.<ref name="exp">{{Cite book |last=Sullivan |first=William L. |title=Exploring Oregon's Wild Areas |publisher=The Mountaineers Books |year=2002 |editor-last=Thurman, Paula |edition=3rd}}</ref>

The county has been vastly reduced from its original size by several boundary changes. One of the first changes gave it access to the Pacific Ocean, when it acquired the northern part of Umpqua County in 1853. With the creation of [[Wasco County, Oregon|Wasco County]] in 1854, it lost all of its territory east of the Cascade Mountains. Minor boundary changes occurred with [[Douglas County, Oregon|Douglas County]] in 1852, 1885, 1903, 1915, and 1917; with Linn County in 1907 and with Benton County in 1923.