You might have come across a planet or two while walking through Alton Baker Park, but did you know how this uniquely Eugene feature came to be?
What is the Eugene Solar System Trail?
The Eugene Solar System Trail runs along the Willamette River from a model of the Sun (more than 4 feet in diameter) in Alton Baker Park downstream to tiny Pluto (now called a dwarf planet).
The model solar system was inspired by a question: How do you explain the scope of our solar system to a fourth-grader?
That was what local resident Jack Van Dusen wondered in 1989 while talking with his son Ben…