Sarah Helmick State Recreation Site
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Sarah Helmick State Recreation Site, also known as Helmick Park, is a
state park State parks are parks or other protected areas managed at the sub-national level within those nations which use "state" as a political subdivision. State parks are typically established by a state to preserve a location on account of its natural ...
located south of
Monmouth Monmouth ( , ; cy, Trefynwy meaning "town on the Monnow") is a town and community in Wales. It is situated where the River Monnow joins the River Wye, from the Wales–England border. Monmouth is northeast of Cardiff, and west of London. I ...
, in
Polk County, Oregon Polk County is one of the 36 counties in the U.S. state of Oregon. As of the 2020 census, the population was 87,433. The county seat is Dallas. The county is named for James Knox Polk, the 11th president of the United States. Polk County is ...
,
United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...
. It is located on the
floodplain A floodplain or flood plain or bottomlands is an area of land adjacent to a river which stretches from the banks of its channel to the base of the enclosing valley walls, and which experiences flooding during periods of high discharge.Goudi ...
of the
Luckiamute River The Luckiamute River is a tributary of the Willamette River, about long, in western Oregon in the United States. It drains an area of Central Oregon Coast Range and the western Willamette Valley northwest of Corvallis. It rises in the remote mo ...
and is forested by
Bigleaf Maple ''Acer macrophyllum'', the bigleaf maple or Oregon maple, is a large deciduous tree in the genus '' Acer''. It is native to western North America, mostly near the Pacific coast, from southernmost Alaska to southern California. Some stands are al ...
,
Douglas-fir The Douglas fir (''Pseudotsuga menziesii'') is an evergreen conifer species in the pine family, Pinaceae. It is native to western North America and is also known as Douglas-fir, Douglas spruce, Oregon pine, and Columbian pine. There are three va ...
, and
Black Cottonwood ''Populus trichocarpa'', the black cottonwood, western balsam-poplar or California poplar, is a deciduous broadleaf tree species native to western North America. It is used for timber, and is notable as a model organism in plant biology. De ...
trees, among other varieties. The park is named for Sarah Helmick, a pioneer to Oregon in 1845 who donated the original land. Sarah Helmick State Recreation Site is the first state park established in Oregon. It was listed on the
National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic v ...
in 2022.


History


Establishment

The land for the park was the first land acquired by what was then the State Highway Commission for use as a park when Sarah Helmick donated and James and Amanda Helmick donated on February 15, 1922.Chester H. Armstrong, ''Oregon State Parks: History, 1917-1963.'' Salem, OR: Oregon State Highway Department, 1965; pg. 185. The park's namesake, Sarah Helmick (1823-1924), was an Oregon pioneer who settled a donation land claim which included the park land with her husband during the second half of the 1840s."Mrs. S. Helmick Dies in Albany,"
''Corvallis Gazette-Times,'' vol. 16, no. 202 (Dec. 24, 1924), pg. 1. The resident of
Albany, Oregon Albany is the county seat of Linn County, Oregon, and is the eleventh largest city in that state. Albany is located in the Willamette Valley at the confluence of the Calapooia River and the Willamette River in both Linn and Benton counties, just ...
gifted the original parcel of land for use as an "automobile campground."


Expansion

In 1948, were purchased and added to the park, followed by a gift of later that same year. Currently a day-use only park, the park used to have overnight camping facilities.


See also

* List of Oregon state parks


Footnotes


External links

* * * {{authority control State parks of Oregon Parks in Polk County, Oregon 1922 establishments in Oregon National Register of Historic Places in Polk County, Oregon