Jasper, OR

Jasper is a Lane County census-designated place at the meeting of Hills Creek and the Middle Fork Willamette River, southeast of Springfield. The 2020 census counted 793 residents. Oregon Route 222 follows the river corridor, with Jasper State Recreation Site south of town and the foothills rising toward the Cascades. Water is the local organizing fact: Hills Creek enters the Middle Fork here, and the river continues west toward Eugene and the Willamette Valley.

The community grew around the family of Cornelius Joel Hills, who settled in the area in 1846. Jasper’s post office opened in 1884, and the Southern Pacific’s Cascade Line later kept a siding here named for Jasper B. Hills. The railroad is gone from everyday view, but the old settlement still sits at a useful crossing of road and river. Pleasant Hill schools serve local children, while the state recreation site and Hills Creek reservoir connect Jasper to the larger public-land and water system upstream. It is a small river junction with a railroad name and a working valley around it.