Springfield, Oregon

About Springfield, Oregon

Springfield is a city in Lane County, Oregon, United States, separated from Eugene, Oregon primarily by the I-5 highway. Springfield was named after a natural spring located in a field or prairie within the current city boundaries. As of the 2000 census, the city had a total population of 52,864. The 2006 estimate is 57,065 residents.

Springfield was settled when Elias and Mary Briggs and their family arrived in 1848. They were among the first party to travel to the region via the “Southern Route” by Klamath Lake, over the Cascades, into the Rogue Valley, then north to the Willamette Valley. Elias Briggs along with William Stevens ran a ferry on the nearby Willamette River.

According to donation land claim records, Stevens was the first settler to stake a claim in the Springfield locale, arriving in October of 1847. He commenced building a house with his three oldest sons, and when the house was completed in December, the rest of his family joined him on Christmas day that year.