Cottage Grove, Oregon
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| Cottage Grove, Oregon | |
| Nickname: Covered Bridge Capital of Oregon | |
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| Coordinates: | |
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| County | Lane County |
| Incorporated | 1887 |
| Government | |
| - Mayor | Gary Williams |
| Area | |
| - City | 8.6 km² (3.3 sq mi) |
| - Land | 8.56 km² (3.2 sq mi) |
| - Water | 0.04 km² (0.1 sq mi) |
| Elevation | 195 m (640 ft) |
| Population (2000) | |
| - City | 8,445 |
| - Density | 988.1/km² (2,559.2/sq mi) |
| Time zone | Pacific (UTC-8) |
| - Summer (DST) | Pacific (UTC-7) |
| Website: www.cottagegrove.org | |
Cottage Grove is a city in Lane County, Oregon, United States. It received its name from its first postmaster, G. C. Pierce, in September 1861. Pierce's home at the time was in an oak grove. The population was 8,445 at the 2000 census.
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[edit] History
The city of Cottage Grove incorporated in February 1887, more than thirty years after the first settlers arrived at what is now Dorena Reservoir. The small town developed as the center of a struggling agricultural community, a place where people often settled because better lands in the northern valley had been taken. Most newcomers hailed from the Midwest. While they found winters in the valley mild, settlers had to acclimate to months of rainy weather and annual floods.
Settlers supplemented subsistence agriculture with livestock and dairies but more importantly with logging and mining. Some of the earliest logging activity in Lane County occurred on the Upper Coast Fork Willamette River (now the location of Cottage Grove Dam) where settler William Payne built the area's first mill in 1867. By the 1890s, loggers used this Willamette River tributary to transport logs to the new mills that lined the shores.
Further north, along the Row River, mining became a significant economic activity after gold was discovered in the Cascade Range in the mid-nineteenth century. By 1902, 2,000 mining claims existed in the Cascades near Cottage Grove. The Row River Valley provided the easiest access to the Bohemia mining area and eventually became the site for the area's first railroad, built in 1899. The railroad ended Cottage Grove's isolation and incorporated the city into western Oregon's transportation corridor. It also launched a logging boom that would not subside until the 1980s.
As was common in Oregon pioneer days, post offices for locations would move with each new postmaster, and it wasn't until the later 1860s that the Cottage Grove post office arrived at its final location, in the extreme southwest of present-day Cottage Grove. When the Southern Pacific Railroad built their line through the area, they built their station more than half a mile to the northeast of the post office, starting a bitter neighborhood disagreement. Since the inhabitants near the post office would not allow it to be moved next to the railroad station, a post office was established near the station, called Lemati, after the Chinook word lemiti for mountain. In 1887 Cottage Grove was incorporated as a city, but the eastern community still used the placename Lemati intermittently until both communities were merged in 1898.
In 1926 the spectacular locomotive crash from Buster Keaton's The General was filmed in the countryside, and the wrecked train became a minor tourist attraction until it was dismantled for scrap during World War II. The 1973 movie Emperor of the North Pole was filmed in and around Cottage Grove, as were parts of the 1978 movie Animal House. The 25th anniversary of Animal House's release was celebrated August 30, 2003 by the citizens with a toga party on Main Street. Main Street is where the climactic parade sequence from the movie was filmed. Portions of the movie Stand By Me were filmed along the railroad tracks east of Cottage Grove.
[edit] Geography
Cottage Grove is located at (43.795370, -123.060904).GR1
According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of 8.6 km² (3.3 mi²). 8.5 km² (3.3 mi²) of it is land and 0.1 km² (0.04 mi²) of it (0.60%) is water.
Cottage Grove lies at the confluence of the Row River and the Coast Fork of the Willamette River. This confluence effectively marks the southern end of the Willamette Valley.
[edit] Demographics
As of the censusGR2 of 2000, there were 8,445 people, 3,264 households, and 2,183 families residing in the city. The population density was 988.1/km² (2,561.6/mi²). There were 3,430 housing units at an average density of 401.3/km² (1,040.4/mi²). The racial makeup of the city was 92.84% White, 0.15% African American, 1.21% Native American, 0.92% Asian, 0.09% Pacific Islander, 1.55% from other races, and 3.23% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 4.94% of the population.
There were 3,264 households out of which 33.0% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 49.4% were married couples living together, 13.2% had a female householder with no husband present, and 33.1% were non-families. 28.1% of all households were made up of individuals and 14.3% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.54 and the average family size was 3.05.
In the city the population was spread out with 27.4% under the age of 18, 8.5% from 18 to 24, 26.4% from 25 to 44, 21.7% from 45 to 64, and 16.0% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 37 years. For every 100 females there were 92.1 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 86.5 males.
The median income for a household in the city was $30,442, and the median income for a family was $37,457. Males had a median income of $30,775 versus $23,485 for females. The per capita income for the city was $14,550. About 15.6% of families and 19.8% of the population were below the poverty line, including 29.0% of those under age 18 and 13.0% of those age 65 or over.
[edit] References
[edit] Transportation
[edit] External links
- City of Cottage Grove
- Oregon Blue Book entry on Cottage Grove
- South Lane School District
- Maps and aerial photos
- Street map from Google Maps, or Yahoo! Maps, or Windows Live Local
- Satellite image from Google Maps, Windows Live Local, WikiMapia
- Topographic map from TopoZone
- Aerial image or topographic map from TerraServer-USA
