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The Active Bethel Community is comprised of the Bethel & Danebo Neighborhoods of Eugene. It has a rich history.
The Kalapuya people lived here until most were displaced by treaties in the 1850s. Their foot trails were followed to create the Hudson’s Bay Trappers Siskiyou Trail in the 1820s, and the Central Pacific Railroad in the 1880s which was followed by Hwy 99, in the 1920s. Hwy 99 was the main west coast highway from Mexico to Canada until Interstate 5 was completed in the 1960s. These paths and highways eventually brought us all to our Bethel/Danebo neighborhood.
The Danish came to farm and started a farmers market at Four Corners (Hwy 99 & Roosevelt), named many of the streets and parks here (including Bertelsen, Barger, Bertzen, Petersen and more) and founded Bethesda Lutheran Church in 1900.
Bethesda’s first Pastor, the Rev. P.L.C. Hansen, acquired an option to buy 1280 acres of farmland at $18 an acre in the area just west of Eugene between West Lawn Cemetery, east to Bertelsen Road and north to Barger Drive.
Ten Danish families from Iowa and Nebraska were encouraged to come to Oregon to establish farms. They were sorely disappointed to find the land in the Amazon drainage to be solid clay and swampy. But they eventually made the land arable enough to raise dairy cattle and poultry.
Bethel/Danebo is now comprised of people whose ancestry includes many countries, languages and traditions, including Native American, Danish, English, German, Irish, Italian, Mexican, Portuguese, Scots-Irish, Scottish, peoples from the many countries in Africa, Central and South America and more.
To celebrate the people of our neighborhood we would love to celebrate the food and recipes you bring with you. If you have a family recipe that you can share with us please submit it in this forum, (or you can email us for guidance at info@ActiveBethelCitizens.org, or call Suzanne at 541-255-7420). We will be posting your recipes in our newsletters and facebook page. As our collection grows we may publish a cookbook for distribution.
Please include: Recipe, country of origin, who taught you the recipe, is it used at a particular holiday or celebration, and anything else you would like to include about your history or the history of the recipe. Feel free to write your recipe in the original language if you know it. An English translation would be helpful too. We are really looking forward to your contribution!