Hello readers! I hope you had as fun of a day as I did. This post will need to be split in two for a couple reasons.
Today I was hoping to publish my 100th blog post, but was not able to write last night, so tonight’s is only #99. Which means I need to write about Oregon State Parks again tomorrow to line up my 100th post with their 100 year anniversary celebration that was today. Plus, it works out well to split up this theme to two parts. Today I’ll talk about the party we attended, and tomorrow I’ll talk about some of my favorite state parks.
I may be a big national park nerd, but state parks are also near and dear to my heart. The biggest and most impressive of them are like miniature national parks that are often easier and cheaper to get to.
Today Oregon State Parks held a big “birthday” party at Sarah Helmick State Park near Monmouth. 100 years ago, a real pioneer woman named Sarah Helmick donated land to the state, which became our very first state park. She had come to Oregon in the late 1840s, and evidently loved it enough to donate her land to it. (Hey, I managed to tie this to my blog’s theme of the journeys of women! But I couldn’t find much online about her actual journey.)
It’s not a big park. A small forest and grassy meadow is about it. But it’s nice, and I have old memories of it. I attended Western Oregon University in Monmouth in the late ’90s. My field geography class went there once to practice using handheld GPSs (long before we had them installed in our phones) to navigate by foot.
I had a couple young kids with me, and despite the rain, they had a blast. The event, titled “2022 Centennial Birthday Event” had activity stations including a classic car expo, “recreational sports through time” such as croquet and disc golf, ODOT history, volunteers, natural resources, and others. The kids loaded up on freebies like stickers, mini-frisbees, activity books, and more. I was given a cool blanket for outdoor use (like picnics, sitting in sports bleachers, etc.). And we got free lunch and cupcakes. It was great! Many thanks to the people who volunteered for this event, and did it cheerfully in the rain. The state parks mascot beaver (maybe the cousin of OSU’s beaver?) also made an appearance giving hugs and high-fives to kids. We did not stay for the presentations and dedications because my nephew’s high school baseball state championship game was at the same time at the Keizer Volcanoes stadium. We made it there late in the game but in time to watch my nephew hit and pitch awesomely, and his team won!
To reward the kids for being great sports going to both of these events in the rain (we loaded up on coats, rain ponchos, rainboots, and umbrellas, but still…), I took them to the Gilbert House children’s museum in Salem so they could play indoors and a little outdoors on the giant vertical Erector Set. They loved it. We also walked through nearby Riverfront Park to see the giant Eco-Earth and the riverboat, the Willamette Queen. A great end to a day of celebrating our great state.
Stay tuned tomorrow for my top favorite Oregon State Parks, and be ready to share yours with me! (And if you’re outside of Oregon, feel free to share your state or province’s best parks!)
The Compass Rose Queen 
Thank you for your article Jessie. It’s very nice too bad it rained last Saturday but it shows spunk in the duck backed, web feet people of Oregon! Oregon green is really why our Oregon green state parks are sought after during camping season. Oregon is a beautiful state and seems to have the most desirable parks. After all the early pioneers knew it when they forged the Oregon trail to set up life here even though it was so rugged to get through to our beauty. M. Lewis & W. Clark story is triumphant to additional Oregon history. Astoria, Oregon tells of a wonderful and exciting time before the OR trail sent us our wonderful state of parks for the USA to visit!