Park Amenities

40 acres
Bike path
Boat landing
Fishing
Jogging path
Natural area
Parking
Picnic tables
Playground
Viewpoints

 

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Eastgate Woodlands

512 Aspen Street

Part of Alton Baker Park

The Eastgate Woodlands is a triangle of green along the Willamette River at the eastern-most end of the Whilamut Natural Area of Alton Baker Park, an urban greenway connecting the communities of Eugene and Springfield. Willamalane Park and Recreation District manages the Eastgate Woodlands as a natural area and recreational corridor. There are plentiful opportunities for walking, bicycling, jogging, boating, and nature appreciation.

The Whilamut Natural Area honors the Kalapuya people and their language.
This park has been adopted by American Veterans Post #16 and Auxilliary. Interpretive information has been provided by the East Alton Baker Park Citizen Planning Committee, Nearby Nature, David Wagner, Susan Applegate, and the Kommema Cultural Protection Association.

Natural Wonders

The community of trees, shrubs, and flowers you see in the Eastgate Woodlands is typical of riparian (riverside) forests in the Willamette Valley. Take a stroll, or a ride, through the woodlands, and discover the natural wonders around you.

 

There are two main trails in the Eastgate Woodlands. The Riverside Trail winds along the Willamette River’s edge through willow, red alder, and cottonwood trees. The Woodlands Trail travels through a shady forest canopy of tall bigleaf maple along the canoe canal.

Along both trails there is a rich understory of native shrubs, including snowberry, hazelnut, osoberry, and our state flower, Oregon Grape. Western wword fern is also plentiful.

Whilamut Natural Area

East Alton Baker Park is now called the Whilamut Natural Area of Alton Baker Park. The Whilamut encompasses 237 acres of publicly-owned open space, linking the neighboring cities of Springfield and Eugene, Oregon. The park includes about three miles of frontage along the north bank of the Willamette River. Eastgate Woodlands is Willamalane's portion of the Whilamut Natural Area.

The Whilamut Natural Area honors the Kalapuya people and their language. The name, (pronounced "wheel-a-moot") was chosen in collaboration with the Komemma Cultural Protection Association of the Kalapuya Tribe. Whilamut means, "Where the river ripples and runs fast." The oral history of the Kalapuya people affirms: "We have always been here." Tribal members hunted, fished, and gathered camas bulbs on the land that is now the Whilamut Natural Area before being forced onto reservations outside their territory in the 1850s.

 

A traditional Kalapuya naming ceremony was held to commemorate the new name on September 7, 2002. This moving ceremony was attended by hundreds of Eugene and Springfield residents (shown in photo above).

Talking Stones

Placed at sites throughout the Whilamut Natural Area of Alton Baker Park are 11 Talking Stones, each inscribed with a Kalapuya word and its English equivalent. For thousands of years, before Euro-American occupation, every object in the local landscape had a Kalapuya name. Today, only 140 words remain.

Map of the Whilamut Natural Area and Talking Stones
To request a brochure about the Talking Stones, call 736-4544.

Park Vision

The Whilamut Natural Area is a riverside retreat at the center of the Eugene-Springfield metropolitan area, where urban dwellers can experience a variety of native plant and wildlife habitats. The Whilamut Natural Area provides opportunities for educational and passive recreational activities that require or are greatly enhanced by the park's physical setting. In addition, the park acts as a connection between the Eugene and Springfield communities. The East Alton Baker Park Plan stipulates that the park will remain free of motorized vehicles.

In the preface to the park plan, members of the park's Citizen Planning Committee emphasize "We are here to serve this land, not the other way around. We recognize that the land has its own integrity, its own inherent design and organization, and we see ourselves as being here to learn from the land and let it shape us. It is time to learn how to live in harmony with the land—to see ourselves, as Aldo Leopold once said, 'as members rather than rulers of the land community'.

Citizen Planning Committee

Formerly the East Alton Baker Park Citizen Planning Committee, the CPC, was formed by the direction of the people of Lane County, who passed the East Alton Baker Park Charter Amendment overwhelmingly in 1992. The CPC is a group of volunteers—ten from Eugene, five from Springfield—appointed by elected officials to oversee the implementation of the park master plan in conjunction with Willamalane Park and Recreation District and City of Eugene Parks and Open Space Division.

The CPC meets four times per year and is active in between meetings working on subcommittee projects. The committee's scope of work includes monitoring agency-initiated restoration and park-improvement activities, coordinating committee-sponsored volunteer projects, and promoting the Whilamut Natural Area to the community as a valuable open space asset.

How to find the park
All driving directions begin at A Street; at the bridge entering Springfield from Glenwood.

1: Head EAST on South A Street. Continue for 1 block
2: Turn LEFT onto Mill Street. Continue for .2 miles
3: Turn LEFT onto D Street. Continue for1 mile
4: Turn LEFT onto Aspen Street to the park

 

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