Platted in 1870 by West Coast railroad promoter Ben Holladay as the intended meeting point of Oregon and California Railroad lines being built south from Portland on both sides of the Willamette River, Junction City grew in lowlands already settled by wagon train migrants for 25 years and near the small river settlement of Lancaster, first becoming the area's center of commerce even though Holladay's hope that it would become a second Chicago was never realized because the east side rail line never reached the town. Even so, it became a division point on what became the Southern Pacific Railroad, with a roundhouse, crew quarters, and a small Chinatown, and a second railroad, the Oregon Electric, arrived in 1912. After the Southern Pacific moved its shops to Eugene in the 1920s, Junction City remained an established farm community and commercial center. Early settlers, primarily with roots in the South, were later joined by people from around the country, and in 1902 Danish developer A.C. Nelson acquired land east of town and successfully promoted settlement by fellow Danes, whose culture six decades later became the nucleus of the Scandinavian Festival. In the post-World War II era the town grew steadily, and as retail trade declined in favor of Eugene, commerce became more service oriented and more residents commuted to work, while a solid manufacturing base emerged in the late 1960s with the rise of a recreational vehicle industry that by the turn of the new century had spread to neighboring cities.