Lane County

Coburg

Booth-Kelly buys the mill and increases mill from one to five stacker. It also employs 300 men working around the clock. 4 trains come into Coburg each day. 3 to take finished lumber to other markets, one passenger train. The passenger train was called the skunk because it was a steam locomotive, a black train with white plume and looked like a skunk. Rumor has it that the entire town turned out each day at 10:00 to see who came in on the Skunk.

The population listed for Springfield in the 1890 and 1900 census was 371 and 393, a definite decline in number since 1880 (Spicer, n.d.:9). Rather than a drop in population, the lower figures probably indicate that the boundaries of the Springfield precinct were drawn to conform with those of the city limits, thereby reducing the total area involved in the census.

In 1900, the railroad is further expanded by adding an eastern track to Wendling (Scott 1919:156).