The top of the Butte is a powerful place to both look up and out. Skinner Butte was originally a place for the Kalapuya to look out across the valley where they lived and connect with the heavens. Later the Butte hosted the UO observatory. While the observatory was not particularly useful for conducting research, it played an important role in surveying the West.

Eventually, the observatory was no longer needed and the university demolished it with a bang.

To learn more about the work of Dr. David Lewis, look for Tribal Histories of the Willamette Valley.

To learn more about Samuel Gannet, his work, and the survey work at the University of Oregon’s short lived Observatory, you can read the article by Joseph Fenicle in The American Surveyor.