<br />1 <br />The path is approximately 8 feet wide for the majority of its 4.15 mile length. The top <br />surface of the trail is intended to crown minimally in order to aid in sheeting off rain. The base <br />materials of bark mulch, approximately 1 to 3 inches deep lies over <br />dense gravel at 6 to 9 inches in depth. <br /> <br />Historic Context <br /> Steve <br />Raymond and Elfriede Prefontaine. He was one of three children in the family, with sisters Neta <br />and Linda. Starting in middle school, Prefontaine discovered his love for cross-country running. <br />At Marshfield High School in Coos Bay, under the coaching of Walt McClure, Prefontaine broke <br />the two-mile American record. In 1969, he enrolled at the University of Oregon (UO), training <br />and competing under coach Bill Bowerman, one of the later co-founders of the athletic footwear <br />company that would become Nike. <br /> Prefontaine quickly achieved national fame after appearing on the cover of Sports <br />Illustrated in 1970, and while at UO claimed seven NCAA titles, placed fourth in the 5,000- <br />meter race at the 1972 Munich Olympics, and eventually claimed American records at every <br />distance between 2,000 and 10,000 meters. He is arguably the most well-known distance runner <br />from the United States. <br /> In the early hours of May 30, 1975, Prefontaine died in a tragic vehicle accident when his <br />MGB convertible collided with a naturally-occurring rock outcropping on Judkins Point, along a <br />curved, inclined section of Skyline Boulevard in Eugene, Oregon. His car flipped and pinned <br />him underneath, by the time the medics arrived on scene he was pronounced deadhe was 24. <br /> The site of the accident was dedicated <br />by the City of Eugene as the Prefontaine Memorial Park in December of 1997 and designated a <br />City Historical Landmark in 2016. <br />Reports in local media <br />include a Register-Guard article dated May 30th, 1975, by Blaine Newnham and Don Mack, <br />with a headline reading Oregon Governor Bob Straub said of <br /> <br />1 <br />4.22 mile distance based on totear geometry mapped in NAD 1983 <br />HARN State Plane Projected Coordinate System, data set produced by Lane Council of Governments (LCOG), on <br />December 18, 2018, <br /> <br />ttp://services3.arcgis.com/F7NiRLGNbA2hh7gE/arcgis/rest/services/Trails_All_View/FeatureServer <br />December 2018 Pres Trail-Historic Designation Page 3 <br /> <br />