Willamette River millrace: a window into the past

From ODOT-

On the
Willamette River Bridge project, clusters of eroding concrete and moss-covered
walls are all that remain of a once-definitive structure for the city of
Eugene: the millrace.  

The
Eugene millrace was built in 1851 to power a single sawmill. Over the next 30
years, more than a dozen additional mills and factories sprang up along
millrace, harnessing hydropower for their operations.  

From a
population of 861 in 1870, Eugene reached 9,009 inhabitants by 1910. While many
factors contributed to population growth, the millrace was one of the primary
catalysts because it supplied cheap power to factories processing the abundant crops
and timber found in the area.

 

This photo shows the
area at the millrace intake, circa 1910. Courtesy of the Lane County Historical
Society. 

The
millrace provided the city’s commercial interests with hydropower for more than
70 years. But as water-powered industries turned to more reliable electric
power, development along the millrace declined until the last water-powered
industrial user closed in 1928.  

More
than eighty years later you can still find several of the old concrete ruins
along the south bank of the river, both under the freeway bridges and to the
east.  

As a
historical artifact, the Eugene millrace is distinguished by the continued
existence of a diversion dam and intake. While they are no longer functional, these
remnants help elevate the millrace to the status of “industrial archeological
site” on the National Register of Historical Places.  

We will
make sure this important legacy lives on by installing interpretive signs and
displays about the millrace along the south bank path by 2014 to make these
historically significant ruins more obvious and understandable to future
generations. 

It’s
just one of the many ways ODOT is fulfilling its pledge to leave the project
area in better shape after construction than we found it.