# Oregon Historical Quarterly/Volume 26/Sarah Helmick and Helmick Park

SARAH HELMICK AND HELMICK PARK
By Virginia Nesbit
Unique in the history of the United States is Helmick Park, Polk County, Oregon. Seventy-nine years ago Sarah and Henry Helmick took up a claim of 640 acres of land on the Luckiamute River in Polk County, Oregon. On September 12, 1924, when the West Side Highway, a link of a paved stretch running through the Pacific Northwest from the Canadian border to the Mexican border, was dedicated, "Grandma" Helmick, 101 years old, gave back to the people of the United States a five-acre natural park of the land which they had given her and her husband in their youth. The fathers of the republic in their vision made laws granting lands on liberal terms which in 1850 took the form of homesteads to the Oregon pioneers. "Grandma" Helmick, with a generosity unequalled by any receiver of a homestead grant in the United States, returned that land to the givers when her time to use it had ended. Her children, grandchildren, great grandchildren, and the generations to come will rise up to call her "blessed" even as will the traveler who rests under the shade of the Oregon trees and drinks of the cool, fresh water as it gushes out of mountain streams. For nowhere in the history of the republic has a pioneer taken a grant of land from the federal government, lived on it, cultivated it and brought forth from it the products of civilization, and returned it to the people who gave it to him.
As "Grandma" Helmick sits in her little house in Albany, Oregon, she looks back on a life full of pioneer hardships, difficulties overcome, and now in her last days has about her a loving and grateful family and the luxuries of modern civilization to give her the comforts that were lacking in the early days.
Stephen Meek, a famous scout of that day was their guide part of the time. He tried unavailingly to persuade McDonald to go to California.
Crossing the Snake River was the most difficult point of the journey. The wheels of the wagons were taken off, and they were blocked in such a way as to keep them afloat. Ten yoke of oxen were attached to each wagon. In this way some of the oxen were always on land, and able to keep the rest from being swept down stream. Their train enjoyed the distinction of not losing a single wagon or piece of baggage during the crossing.
A thrilling moment was experienced when an old time scout galloped into camp, so exhausted that he fell from his horse, saying that thousands of Indians were surrounding them. The men in the wagon train wanted to arm. The scout warned them that they could do nothing against so many thousands, in case they were hostile, and that if they were friendly the sight of the guns would make them hostile. When they put their ears to the ​ground it shook with the tramping of thousands of horses. But for more than an hour no signs of the Indians appeared. Suddenly on the horizon appeared the feathered warriors in countless numbers. Fortunately for the wagon train they were friendly and after visiting the train and curiously examining everything they departed. They were friendly Snake Indians on their way to war with an enemy tribe in the north.
Births, deaths and occasional merry-making occurred. On the Fourth of July, 1845, the wagons stopped to celebrate Independence Day, and the birthdays of Sarah Helmick and three other pioneers. How little did those men and women battling their way across the plains realize that the generations to come would honor them, and would raise Sarah Helmick to be among the greatest of the pioneer women to cross the plains.
The only mishap of the trip occurred when they arrived at Cascade Rapids, Oregon, six months and three days after leaving Burlington. The raft containing all the earthly goods of Sarah and Henry, Helmick broke loose from its moorings and everything they possessed was swept away. They were left stranded, alone without food or shelter for many hours. Two friendly Indian squaws found them, and carried word of their plight to the nearest settlement. A Mr. Ebberts of Tualatin Plains came to their rescue, and took them with him to his home. They were given a part of his house with facilities for housekeeping and Mr. Helmick was given work as a carpenter. Early the following year he built the first grist mill in Salem, Oregon.
In the fall of 1846 they took up their claim on the Luckiamute. The first year was the hardest. Their diet that year consisted of boiled beans and wheat, with less than three pounds of meat all winter. Henry Helmick was stricken with gold fever in 1849 and went to California for a year. The gold venture was unsuccessful ​and he returned to Oregon, but as the years went by they prospered and when Mr. Helmick died in 1877 they had enough property to enable "Grandma" Helmick to build herself a home in Albany, Oregon, and live there the rest of her days without want.
September 12,1924, when the West Side Highway was dedicated Governor Walter Pierce and other officials of the state, and 7000 people from the Willamette Valley, through which the highway runs, and in which Albany, Oregon, the home of "Grandma" is located, came to honor her, and pay tribute to the spirit which prompted the generous gift. Living near her in Oregon "Grandma" has two children, six grandchildren and eight great grandchildren.