Today we loaded up and headed toward Salem. I had read a recent article in the Register Guard about Thompson’s Mills State Park. It is currently the newest park in the Oregon State Parks system. It turned out to be a fascinating piece of the 19th Century preserved here in the here and now. Thompson's Mills is the oldest surviving grist mill in Oregon and was originally named Boston Mill. In 1858 Richard Finley bought the water rights to the Calapooia River for $75. The mill was built soon after. A thriving town named Boston was built next to the mill but in 1871 the railroad was built to Shedd Station further west and the town’s people picked up lock stock and barrel plus the buildings and moved to be near the railroad’s new station. Originally built for farmers to grind grain for their personal use, silos were added and the name was changed to Thompson’s Flouring Mills in the early 1900’s. With the addition of the silos flour was produced for commercial sale. In the 1940’s the mill made another transition to the creation of animal feeds. Production of electricity was also a source of income up until 2005 when the land was acquired by the State of Oregon.

After the tour of the mill we headed on to Salem where The Bean Himself and Mr. Bean made a whirlwind tour of The Gilbert House Children’s Museum. The Sprout was asleep so Mrs. Bean sacrificed and slept a bit too to let her get some needed rest. Gilbert House is a wonderful place built around several historic structures that were saved from the wrecking ball. One of the Victorian style structures that makes up the museum complex was built by Andrew T. Gilbert the uncle of the “man who saved Christmas” A.C. Gilbert.

A.C Gilbert was an extraordinary man. He was an Olympic athlete winning a gold medal in the pole vault, he earned a degree in medicine from Yale. He was also a prolific inventor and the creator of the erector set. The museum pays homage to him in many ways. A huge play structure is built to look like the erector set. A model train display shows his American Flyer train sets in action and several displays detail his accomplishments. After we played in the bubble room and on the playground, The Bean Himself spent some time pretending he was a grocery man and then pinched a penny at the penny smasher in the Parish House.

Afterward we walked over to the old Southern Pacific Railroad vertical lift bridge to take a look at the old abandoned crossing. While there we found an Oregon Dept of Transportation benchmark 44 56.802 123 02.433 in one of the bridges footings but it was really hard to identify the mark due to damage on the face of it. We made a quick stop at a local store (Burlington) to bargain shop and then headed home having had a full day.