At the meeting, the Eugene Register-Guard and the Eugene Daily News offered to carry on a publicity campaign acquainting the people of Eugene with the need for immediate action. Wayne Morse headed a committee of three, who were to carry on a campaign to raise money for the purchase. The campaign officially started on the thirteenth of January. The idea was to have no contributions larger than $5, in order to let everyone buy a piece of the Butte. During the campaign, a series of articles on the Butte were run in the papers, ranging from its history and geology to its recreational potential and flora and fauna.
Several organizations approached the Park Commission to do benefit entertainments. The papers printed daily tallies of the contributions, and by January 23rd, less than half of the necessary funds were raised. Concern that the drive might ultimately fail, evidently was behind the January 28th promise from the Park Commission to return each donors money if it did.
Paul Giese dropped his offer to $6,000, which was $500 less than the logger’s offer, saying that it was his contribution to the campaign. Only $687 had come in by January 30th. On the final day the fund was short $103.09. At the last moment an elderly gentleman posted a $1,000 government bond to guarantee the fund. By February, with more than $1,100 in funds, the Park Commission made the down payment and the contract was signed for the Giese's 240 acres. More than a thousand people had contributed from one cent to five dollars during the campaign.
A celebration dinner was held on February 10th, 1938, at which Wilkins proposed a resolution of thanks to the people of Eugene and especially the newspapers for their loyalty and generosity in raising the funds necessary for the first payment on the Spencer Butte Park site. This was adopted and each member was to receive a card of thanks. However there was still a large balance due on Giese's contract, as well as the $1,100 due outright by June, on the Morse's forty acres. Therefore it was arranged to get a levy measure put on the May 20th City primary ballot to cover these costs. Wilkins’ thoroughness and enthusiasm played a similarly shining part in this second publicity campaign of the year. In an article published by the Eugene Daily News, Wilkins was quoted as giving these two alternatives: a logged off road and ruined old landmark, or owned by the City of Eugene as a park for our people, generation after generation. Another quotation from a statement that Wilkins made was Aremember, Eugene boys and girls will be climbing Spencer Butte fifty and one hundred years from today, to be inspired by looking over a city built out to the very foot of the Butte. The ballot measure passed by a vote of 3082 to 1940.
By the end of 1938, plans had been formulated for improvement, such as bridle paths and walks into and around Spencer Butte. Some of these plans were acted upon up into the early 1940's. Virtually all development up to the early 1970's occurred at this time.
In August of 1951, a radio announcer raised a brief flurry of controversy by complaining about hundreds of goats running wild on the Butte. They were mostly fugitives from area farmers' and ranchers' herds. A local stockman estimated they had been on the Butte for better than thirty years. Butte residents pointed out that they were an asset as they kept Spencer Butte clear of underbrush, ate the poison oak, and drove off the rattlesnakes. The Butte was still primitive. At the time plans were being made for fire trails and setting up a plan for fire protection.
In 1957 a recreational path for foot, bicycle, and horse traffic was planned between 33rd Avenue and Hilyard, to the east park boundary. Douglas Kline and builder Frank Kinney contributed easements through their properties for it. The most notable occurrence of the 1950's however, was another threat to Spencer Butte's physical appearance. In May of 1958, the president of KEED radio station, Glenn Stadler, requested permission of the City Council to erect a TV tower on the Butte top. A furious public counterattack erupted when the council appeared to favor the request, which would have also included a service road. Stadler argued that few climbed Spencer Butte and these were mostly the young and the stalwart. It was learned though that in reality, many Cub Scouts, Boy Scouts, and people in their sixties climbed the Butte regularly. The Butte was climbed each weekend, even during the winter, the consensus being Athe view is enhanced if it is earned. This attitude, along with the fear of the potentially ruined view of the Butte from the city, compelled the Council's denial of permission for the project. Parks and Recreation Superintendent, W. Riley Tex Matsler, got involved, making a brief study of alternative sites that met broadcast criteria, and came up with the Blanton Heights recommendation, which was accepted by TV proponents.
Much of this informtion was taken from an essay written by W. Patrick Workman, entitled Spencer Butte Park. Last update: 9/12/03