A typhoid outbreak in 1906 united the community to make everyone safer.
Skinner Butte plays an important role in advocating for public health activism. Dr. Shelton and several colleagues started a water company in 1886 and sold it to an East Coast Company shortly after. The renamed Willamette Valley Company did not maintain the system leading to a typhoid outbreak from sewer break into Mill Creek. Public outcry and activism around the event led to the creation of the Eugene Water Board.
Listen to the Executive Director of Shelton McMurphey Johnson House tell the story of the first utility company of Eugene.
The Footnotes on the Butte project was funded in part by:
