Pleasant Hill is an

unincorporated community An unincorporated area is a region that is not governed by a local municipal corporation. Widespread unincorporated communities and areas are a distinguishing feature of the United States and Canada. Most other countries of the world either have ...

in Lane County,

Oregon Oregon () is a U.S. state, state in the Pacific Northwest region of the Western United States. The Columbia River delineates much of Oregon's northern boundary with Washington (state), Washington, while the Snake River delineates much of it ...

, United States.

History

Pleasant Hill was the first white settlement in Lane County when

Elijah Bristow Elijah Bristow (1788–1872) was the first white settler to stake a claim and build a permanent cabin in 1846 in the upper Willamette Valley, in what is now Lane County, Oregon, United States. He and his wife Susannah Gabbert Bristow established ...

settled in 1846. He was the first of a party of four immigrants to settle, most recently from

California California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...

. Also in the party was

Eugene Skinner Eugene Franklin Skinner (September 13, 1809 – December 15, 1864) was an early American settler in Oregon and the founder of the city of Eugene, Oregon, which is named after him. Skinner was born in Essex, New York. His father was Major John Jo ...

, Captain Felix Scott, and

William Dodson William is a male given name of Germanic origin.Hanks, Hardcastle and Hodges, ''Oxford Dictionary of First Names'', Oxford University Press, 2nd edition, , p. 276. It became very popular in the English language after the Norman conquest of Eng ...

. Dodson and Scott took up adjacent claims, Dodson to the southeast and Scott to the west of Bristow's claim. Scott later abandoned and claimed opposite the mouth of the

Mohawk River The Mohawk River is a U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map accessed October 3, 2011 river in the U.S. state of New York. It is the largest tributary of the Hudson River. The Mohawk f ...

, some north of his previous claim. Skinner made his claim at what is now Eugene. Pleasant Hill has survived numerous house fires and light flooding in lower areas, but the most remembered flood was in 1996. The flooding resulted in no deaths but many homes were destroyed.

Geography

Pleasant Hill is from Creswell, in the area between the

Coast Fork Willamette River The Coast Fork Willamette River is one of two forks that unite to form the Willamette River in western Oregon in the United States. It is about long, draining an area of the mountains at the south end of the Willamette Valley south of Eugene. Co ...

and the

Middle Fork Willamette River The Middle Fork Willamette River is one of several forks that unite to form the Willamette River in the western part of the U.S. state of Oregon. It is approximately long, draining an area of the Cascade Range southeast of Eugene, which is at t ...

Education

Public schools in Pleasant Hill include the

OSAA The Oregon School Activities Association (OSAA) is a non-profit, board-governed organization that regulates high school athletics and competitive activities via athletic conferences in the U.S. state of Oregon, providing equitable competition amo ...

class 3A Pleasant Hill High School and an Elementary School. Due to decreased enrollment and budget issues, Trent Elementary School has been closed. At this time, grades K-5 attend the Elementary and grades 6-12 attend the High School.

Emerald Christian Academy Emerald Christian Academy, originally called Emerald Junior Academy, is a private Christian school in Pleasant Hill, Oregon, United States. It is affiliated with the Seventh-day Adventist Church. Children from kindergarten to eighth grade may enr ...

, a private Seventh-Day Adventist K-10 school, is also located in Pleasant Hill.

Notable person

Pleasant Hill was the home of author and counter-cultural figure

Ken Kesey Ken Elton Kesey (September 17, 1935 – November 10, 2001) was an American novelist, essayist and countercultural figure. He considered himself a link between the Beat Generation of the 1950s and the hippies of the 1960s. Kesey was born in ...

, who died in 2001.

References

Unincorporated communities in Lane County, Oregon Unincorporated communities in Oregon {{LaneCountyOR-geo-stub