Grateful Dead had strong ties to Eugene.

Byline: Matt Cooper The Register-Guard

CORRECTION (ran 6/29/04): Jerry Garcia's first wife was Sara Ruppenthal. A story on Page G1 Sunday was incorrect.

The Grateful Dead's tie-dyed ties to Eugene are strong.

Over the years, the band played at the University of Oregon, the Hult Center and Autzen Stadium. Guitarist Jerry Garcia did gigs at Churchill and South Eugene high schools and his first wife, Mountain Girl, lives in the Pleasant Hill area.

Jeff Harrison, 52, an English teacher at Lane Community College, has retained much of the group's local history during 30 years as a fan.

At the center of the Eugene-Dead connection, Harrison said, is the late Ken Kesey, whose Pleasant Hill farm meant escape for a group on the rise in the 1970s. Old photos show Garcia visiting the farm and kicking around McKenzie Bridge.

The experimental jam band and the mischievous author bonded in California in the 1960s as Kesey and his group of Merry Pranksters augmented Grateful Dead gigs with LSD-inspired parties.

The Dead played a 1968 show at the UO's Erb Memorial Union Ballroom.

In 1972, the Dead played on Oregon Country Fair land to support the Springfield Creamery, a Kesey family business.

The Dead played multinight shows at the Hult in 1983 and 1984. The band played Autzen in the 1980s and 1990, but wasn't invited back in 1991 because unruly fans were defecating, urinating and even fornicating on the grounds.

Other local Dead contacts include restaurateur Ray Sewell, who catered band meals, and Alan Trist, who operates the Dead's publishing company, Ice Nine, Harrison said.

Eugene's reputation was that of a hippie haven and Dead hangout, Harrison said.

But did hippies migrate here because of the Dead, or did the Dead migrate here because of the hippies?

A little of both, Harrison said: "It's this ideal organic synthesis."