Lots of Answers - More Questions

It was a heck of a productive day today. We met up with Tracey for breakfast...I can't believe the portions here but somehow I soldiered through all those blueberry pancakes! She provided us with a concise compilation of her research and we had a great visit. We also learned that she does all her research for free...she is a 5th generation Oregonian and just enjoys giving back to the region by donating her time in terms of historical research, in particular that of the many pioneer cemeteries. She and her husband are often found foraging through brush and battling poison oak to locate overgrown cemeteries and cataloguing the occupants.

While Tracey was on her way out Colleen arrived and we extended our breakfast a bit. Colleen is a Collins and we are still unsure exactly if we are related through marriage or if the Collins and Chamberlins were just good friends. The Collins had a Donated Land Claim next door to the Chamberlins.

This is a photo of us with Tracey:



Colleen, Dad, and myself then headed to John Hefley's house to see if he was available for a visit. Colleen took the opportunity to show us the sign that will be put up at the Chamberlin Cemetery site to mark it as an official historical cemetery.



Unfortunately John was not home so we decided to carry on to the Polk County Museum to start our research. We were a bit early so cruised around and checked the story-boards outside.





Once inside we hit the books hard. There was so much information that we were truly overloaded but it is much better having too much info than not enough and we had a very productive afternoon.



Here is a tree tracing our relatives back to the late 1500's. This is so interesting. Looks like my great, great, great, great, great grandfather was an officer in the American Revolution. There is much more to investigate but we haven't had a chance to really dig deep yet...








This map shows the journey the Chamberlins made along the Oregon Trail from Missouri in 1845:




In here somewhere are the maps of the Donated Land Claims belonging to Aaron C. Chamberlin and his sons Andrew and Joseph...



This is a map of all DLC's in this area of Oregon...



And a survey map of the original DLC taken by Aaron C. Chamberlin. This piece of land is where we went to right after the museum and is the location of the Chamberlin Cemetery...



A photo of the original Chamberlin homestead:



One last photo of the intrepid investigators before heading out to the countryside...



We are definitely in farm country!



We headed south of the museum at Rickreall and towards Corvallis. The old Chamberlin DLC (containing the Chamberlin Cemetery) is now owned by John Hefley and is located part way between Monmouth and Corvallis on Hwy 99W...





The countryside is really quite striking, a combination of lush fields and rolling hills with a mix of coniferous and deciduous trees...I hope to get some decent pics in the coming days. We pulled up and spoke with Joe, the person renting a residence on the property.



We were quickly pointed to the gate leading to the Chamberlin Cemetery. It will be a bit of a climb tomorrow...



After making arrangements with Joe we called it a day. On our way out Joe's pet goat entertained us...although the sticking out of the tongue was uncalled for!







On that note we headed back to the ranch (read: thin-walled hotel) and had a light dinner of crackers and cheese...these American breakfasts and lunches certainly render the last meal of the day superfluous. Well, another day of adventure ahead tomorrow...hopefully we will get to connect with John Hefley as he will hold more than a few answers to some of the bigger research questions that arose today.