This site is available for adoption! My name is Shauna Williams and I am watching over this site until it can find someone to adopt it. The goal is to offer tons of free genealogical information on each page. While the Illinois Genealogy Trails page is 7 years old, the rest of the states are just starting out and we need your help. Perhaps you would like to Volunteer to host a county in Oregon, or even take on another state. Visiting the volunteer page on the main Genealogy Trails site will tell you everything you need to know. Even if you don't want to do that I would love to have any source data you have used in your own search to add to these web pages. I need all your help! Even with the pages un-hosted I will be glad to put your information online so please feel free to email me with any questions, comments or information. Don't forget to go to the
main Genealogy Trails site through the logo above to see the great
information we have online!
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"Benton County was created
from Polk County by an act of the Provisional Government of Oregon
in 1847.
It is one of seven counties in the United States to be named after Senator
Thomas Hart Benton of Missouri, a longtime advocate of the development of
the Oregon Territory. The county was created out of an area originally
inhabited by the Klickitat Indians, who rented it from the Calapooia Indians for use as hunting
grounds. At that time, the boundaries began at the intersection of
Polk County and the Willamette River, ran as far south as the
California border and as far west as the Pacific Ocean. Later,
portions of Benton County were taken to form Coos, Curry, Douglas,
Jackson, Josephine, Lane and Lincoln Counties, leaving it in its
present form with 679 square miles of land area." Oregon Blue Book
Surrounding Counties:
Thomas Hart Benton photo: Library of Congress, Prints & Photographs Division, [LC-USZ62-109983 DLC ]
Harris Covered Bridge & Finley refuge photos: Gary Halvorson, Oregon State Archives.