Sarah King Chambers Grave

Sarah King Chambers Gravesite from:  GRAVES AND SITES ON THE OREGON AND CALIFORNIA TRAILS
by Randy Brown and Reg Duffin
Oregon-California Trails Association; Independence, MO

General Comments - Sarah King Chambers grave is located in remote Oregon desert country on the infamous "Meek Cutoff," near the banks of the North fork of the Malheur River. it is marked by the original headstone. The current fence around the grave was built by Lowell Tiller, OCTA director and coauthor of  Terrible Trail: the Meek cutoff, 1845 (1966, 1993), and OCTA national preservation officer Dick Ackerman. Visitors to the site should also ask locally for directions to the nearby pioneer cemetery where Oregon trailblazer Levi Scott is buried.
Location - About 25 miles north of Juntura, Malheur county, Oregon.

Directions - Juntura is about 65 miles west of Vale on US 20. From Juntura follow a winding dirt road that leads to Beulah Reservoir. In 22 miles, cross a bridge near an intersection with the road to westfall. turn left at the intersection. The grave site is about 2 miles down this road, just off the road to the right, on a small knoll. Look for the log fence. A large hay barn is opposite. Access - open to the public. Ownership - Unknown.

Don Thurman & Lowell Tiller of Oregon's Historical Markers Committee at the site of the Sarah King grave.

Many thanks to Lowell Tiller for this picture and quotes from:
Terrible Trail: the Meek Cutoff, 1845. (1966, 1993)

"About where they reached the North Fork is the only known, marked grave of the lost '45 emigration, that of Sarah Chambers, the young wife of Rowland Chambers and daughter of Nahum King, who later settled King's valley and lent his name to much of that local area. the marker is of native stone, painstakingly scratched "S. Chambers, Sept. 3, 1845." None of the diarists mentions her death and it would appear they knew nothing of it."

Through the interest of Mr. Eugene Clark of Pasadena, California, Mr. Ken Kessler of  Vale, Oregon, and others, the stone marking the grave has been mounted in concrete. There is at present, an historical marker placed by OCTA." (Clark & Tiller, 31).

Full text of OCTA Marker


D

SARAH KING CHAMBERS
 
       Sarah King Chambers was born July 25, 1823, in Madison county, Ohio, to Nahum and Sarepta King. In the spring of 1845 she, along with her husband, Rowland, and their children Margaret and James, joined other members of the King family on their migration west. Their destination was the Willamette Valley of Oregon, for a new beginning in a land which held great promise. With about 1,000 other emigrants and 200 wagons, the King party chose to follow Stephen Meek in an ill-fated attempt to cross central oregon on their way to the upper Willamette Valley, near present day Eugene. Meek convinced them that this new route would avoid many hazards of the Blue Mountains, the restless Cayuse Indians, and the perilous journey down the Columbia River. Their group became known as the "Lost Wagon Train of 1845." Not really lost, but desperate for water in these high deserts, they abandoned their plans for a new route and turned north toward the Columbia River and the established trail to Oregon. They arrived at the mission in The Dalles in October in a most deplorable condition. Sarah could not complete that journey. She died on Sept. 3, 1845, and was buried here, alongside the "Terrible Trail." The cause of death was not recorded in contemporary accounts. There were twenty-three other known deaths along the cutoff route from where they left the Oregon Trail at the crossing of the Malheur River (in present day Vale, Oregon) until they rejoined the Oregon Trail at the mission at the Dalles.

Research, Funding, and Signing by the
OREGON-CALIFORNIA TRAILS ASSOCIATION
1991


This is a part of your American heritage. Honor it, protect it, preserve it for your children

Catherine Butts  Trail Graves Page   
Home