The UNofficial Simpson's Tour

Who hasn't seen this show, I mean come on? The Simpson's are a classic; flipping through the channels late at night as a kid I always ran into this. So, of course, when I moved to Eugene and saw the city Springfield I was curious if there were any connections. Come to find out the show was inspired by this city and there is even a whole tour dedicated to it!! Click here if you want to check it out, google map included.

Starting off the tour is the Springfield Horseman Statue designed back in 1960 by a UO art student. Immediately, I realized I was going to have to brush up on some of my Simpson's facts, lol. In the show Jebediah Springfield is dipicted on a memorial in the townsquare, some of the inspiration for which may have come from this statue along with another. The tour discription states that "in Springfield, OR an unknown rider presides over the entrance of the city" and it was painted yellow during the year the movie came out in the national preimer competition.

The second stop on the tour was Moe's Tavern! This place was the only one on the list that came after the Simpson's and took them for inspiration. Unfortunately, when I got there, Chow's had taken over and Moe's was no longer in business. However, I did get a chance to see the Moe's sign (currently, not very pleasing to the eyes) and try the candied bacon. Yikes, let me tell you I was not a fan but hey that's just me everyone else seems to love it.

After a slight disappointment from Moe's, I found myself in the Springfield Museum sitting on the couch with the family. If it were softer and comfy I probably would have been laying more like Bart. This display is huge and takes up like a sixth of the whole upper level. The rest of the museum was history! I found it to be really interesting, and all the black and white photos were incredible.

Next up was the mural painted outside of the Ermeral Art Center. I had to visit this twice to get a couple good shots and both times there were other people trying to photograph it! Not sure why this one was poppin' and not the rest ha! Inside the center were other amazing local artists' paintings, I would love to start buying my art local as I work on decorating my home. So much inspiration here.

The last two stops took me back to my new home town of Eugene! On the University of Oregon campus there is a bronze Pioneer Statue which is the most largely claimed inspiration of Jebediah Springfield's. I drove around the campus a little but only got out of my car to snap a picture because it was busy even on the off day!

Then finally, I went to the real inspiration for Moe's Tavern. The oldest bar in Eugene, open since 1932 and you can defeinitely see it when you walk inside from the stained glass to the tininess of the building. A very locals local place, no newbies allowed. I didn't stay very long to be honest since I don't drink a whole lot of beer and I'm not really ready to try a pickled egg! But if that's a challenege you're willing to take this is definitely a place for you.

This was my second tour, although unoffical this time, and basically I'm finding out that I love tours!!! History is more interesting when it happened or was inspired by somewhere I actually am. I think I might have even found a new thing to add to all the other things I like to do. Stay tuned to find out which tour I take on next.

xoxo,

Andrea Aloren