<br />Water and Electric Board (EWEB). Before its identification as a potential recreation site, the area <br />was used for gravel mining, land fill, orchards, and farming. Alton Baker, Sr., for whom the park <br />was eventually named in honor of, had been a principal sponsor and promoter of the efforts to <br />6 <br />establish the park. Proposed uses for the park during the park planning stages, beginning with <br />the Eugene Park Study of 1951 and through the dedication ceremony in 1967, varied from <br />include indoor tennis and gymnastics. However, an early criterion for the park was that the <br />dominant land use be for passive recreation. The newly appointed Alton Baker Park <br />Development Advisory Committee, created in in 1972, ultimately dismissed the golf course <br />proposal in favor of pedestrian walks and trails, picnic shelters, and gardens. <br />The idea of a naturalistic, exercise-specific trail based on those European models had <br />been proposed by Prefontaine to the Lane County Park and Open Space Department, likely in <br />conjunction with the brand new park land planning process. The real possibility was considered <br />7 <br />for building a one-mile trail. as part of a search memorialize <br />the local track hero, the proposal for a five-mile jogging trail quickly gained recognition. <br />In three months, due largely in part to cooperation between Land County Parks, Oregon <br />Track Club, the Eugene Register-Guard newspaper, businessmen of the Eugene-Springfield- <br /> <br />8 <br />the idea quickly became reality. Paul Beistel, superintendent of Lane County Parks and Open <br />Space, landscape architect Ewald Nielsen, and landscape designer Mike Dooley have been <br />credited with much of the preliminary plan and design work. <br />Construction of the path began with machine scrapping the base and berms for the path. <br />Lane County crews, augmented by employees from a federal Comprehensive Employment and <br />Training Act (CETA) program, used county equipment to cut the base, followed by spreading <br />and smoothing the hogged fuel by hand. The hogged fuel, in addition to its plentiful availability <br />in the area, provided a soft base material for the runners. Crews watered down and rolled the <br />base material to aid in compacting the surface. <br /> <br />6 <br /> <br />Baker was co-founder of the Eugene Register Guard, who was involved in park acquisition issues, and <br />was instrumental in acquiring both this park and Maurie Jacobs Park. <br />7 <br /> <br />76). Retrieved from City of Eugene <br /> <br />Parks and Open Space archives, 1820 Roosevelt Blvd, Eugene, OR 97402. <br />8 <br /> <br />. <br />December 2018 Pres Trail-Historic Designation Page 6 <br /> <br />