14. Cedar Creek and
      Stella Olsen Park

"In the early 1950's Oscar Olsen donated to the city, the major portion of his holdings along Cedar creek and the Meinecke road, to be used as a park to be known as 'Stella M. Olsen Memorial Park.' A year or two before he died in 1959, he deeded his home property to the city, retaining a life interest for himself." —The Hillsboro Argus, "Oscar Olson Donates Park to City.", 8-22-1960.

Before there was a Sherwood there was the Cedar Creek District. Cedar Creek flows to the Tualatin River, which provided a significant historical barrier between us and the rest of Washington County. The two families that first settled in our remote landscape were the Halls and the Johnsons. The brothers W.V.J Johnson and Dr. Horatio V.V. Johnson took up land claims in the Cedar Creek District in 1850, two years before the Halls arrived. The Halls and Johnsons came from different parts of America and held very different opinions about nearly everything. John Hall was a Democrat. Dr. Johnson was a Republican. (Democrats tended to hale from the South, Republicans from the North.) Hall avoided public life, while Johnson reveled in it. The Johnson brothers thought deeply about the great issues of the day, while Hall (according to Dr. Johnson) "is so retired and unassuming that his talents are not observed by many." Another important family, the Olds family, settled on two adjacent Donation Land Claim plots next to the Johnson's. Darwin and George Olds arrived as Democrats but became Republicans very soon afterwards, following a political trend that occurred throughout Washington County as the influence of the South began to fade. (Source: Washington County: Politics and Community in Antebellum America by Bourke and DeBats)

A very important wagon road crossed Cedar Creek during the covered wagon era. The road, referred to on survey maps as the Oregon City - Lafayette Road, was one of numerous roads that radiated from the town of Lafayette when it was still the most important town in the Willamette Valley. Running about where Third Street lies today, the Oregon City - Lafayette Road went to Oregon's Territorial Capital, Oregon City (when that town was still the largest town in Oregon), continuing along a path that is today's Hermann Road in Tualatin. James C. Smock and his adopted family almost certainly brought their covered wagon down this trail when they arrived here in 1852. Thanks to the Olsens, it is not only possible to travel that road today... it is also possible to look upon the Cedar Creek landscape and imagine what it must have looked like to the four year old Smock. As a child of the South, he already had learned the importance of river navigation. History does not mention the many rafts Smock must have constructed in the Huckleberry Finn tradition. However, history does record the fact that he helped his Uncle Amos Zimmermann Hall and his step-father John Johnson Hall mill lumber for covered bridges at the family's sawmill on Cedar Creek. Many buildings in Old Sherwood Town contain the old growth, heart-wood cedar that the Cedar Creek mill provided.

There was a time, after the wagon road disappeared and before the linkage of Meinecke Road with Washington Street, that Stella Olsen Park was impassible to automobile traffic. Viewed from the townsite, the area possessed a gloomy and steamy ambience then. It was easy to imagine the prehistoric native Americans, the Calupaya camoflauged by deer skins and deer antlers, following their prey through the dense foliage.