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Welcome to Bethel ...

So far, we found very little information about Bethel. The little that we've found leads us believe that the community is historic.<1>

We've added Bethel to our Gazetteer with the hope that we can develop more information. If you can help us with Bethel, please Contact Us.

Bethel would have been located within present day Polk County<2>.


The location of Bethel has been provided by the Geographic Names Information System (ie- the GNIS).<3>


While we don't have a date for the founding of Bethel, you might consider that their post office opened  in 1865.

While the community is gone, the present day location for Bethel is 190 feet [58 m] above sea level.<4>.

Time Zone: The area where Bethel was located is in the Pacific Time Zone (PST/PDT) and observes daylight saving time

Bethel would have been located in the (503) & (971)<5> area codes.

Communities Also Named Bethel ...

Using our Gazetteer, we found that there are two Oregon communities named Bethel: This one is located in Polk County and the other is located in Lane County.

Beyond Oregon, there are 143 communities that are also named Bethel - they are located in Alabama (13), Alaska, Arkansas (7), California, Connecticut (2), Delaware (2), Florida (2), Georgia (10), Illinois (4), Indiana (2), Iowa, Kansas (3), Kentucky (3), Louisiana (2), Maine, Manitoba, Maryland (5), Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi (5), Missouri, New Brunswick, New Jersey, New Mexico (2), New York (2), North Carolina (9), Ohio (5), Oklahoma (2), Ontario (4), Pennsylvania (8), Prince Edward Island, Quebec, Rhode Island, South Carolina (3), Tennessee (14), Texas (9), Vermont, Virginia (7), Washington, West Virginia and Wisconsin.

For more information, see our Tidbits & Trivia Page for Bethel.

Communities near Bethel ...

We have created a list of 10 communities that are near Bethel.

  • Salem
    (10 miles [16.1 km] to the southeast)
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Salem
    • Salem is located in Marion County
    • Population from the 2020 Census: 175,891 people
    • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Salem <6>
  • Keizer
    (8 miles [12.9 km] to the east)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Keizer have been provided by the GNIS.<3> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Keizer
    • Keizer is located in Marion County
    • Population from the 2020 Census: 39,593 people
    • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Keizer <6>
  • McMinnville
    (11 miles [17.7 km] to the north)
  • Woodburn
    (17 miles [27.4 km] to the northeast)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Woodburn have been provided by the GNIS.<3> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Woodburn
    • Woodburn is located in Marion County
    • Population from the 2020 Census: 26,175 people
    • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Woodburn <6>
  • Dallas
    (10 miles [16.1 km] to the southwest)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Dallas have been provided by the GNIS.<3> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Dallas
    • Dallas is located in Polk County
    • Population from the 2020 Census: 17,331 people
    • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Dallas <6>
  • Independence
    (13 miles [20.9 km] to the south)
  • Silverton
    (19 miles [30.6 km] to the east)
    • Note: The GPS coordinates that we are using for Silverton have been provided by the GNIS.<3> The coordinates still need to be verified.
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Silverton
    • Silverton is located in Marion County
    • Population from the 2020 Census: 10,617 people
    • Jump to TripAdvisor's Tourism page for Silverton <6>
  • Monmouth
    (13 miles [20.9 km] to the south)
  • Sheridan
    (11 miles [17.7 km] to the west)
  • Lafayette
    (14 miles [22.5 km] to the north)

To Help With Your Genealogy Research ...

We have a couple of sections for those tracing their genealogy.

We created a list of cemeteries that are in the area around Bethel. Our list includes the location of those cemeteries and we provide an overhead view. See our Cemetery List for Bethel.

Using the information from an 1895 Atlas, we've created a list of communities that were in the area of Bethel. Our list includes information such as whether the 1895 community had a post office or railroad service. See our List of 1890's Communities around Bethel.

We also have a detailed list of newspapers that have been published in the area around Bethel. See our Newspapers Page for Bethel.

Adding Bethel to Our Gazetteer ...

We originally found mention of Bethel in both the FIPS-55 and the GNIS. For more information, see the FIPS and GNIS Codes sections on our Miscellaneous Page.

From our notes, the earliest published mention we've found for Bethel was in the document titled List of Post Offices from Cameron Blevins and Richard Helbock.<7>

From that list, the Bethel post office opened in 1865.

We also found Bethel in the book titled List of Post Offices in the United States (1870).

For more details, see References and Mentions for Bethel.

The official website for Polk County: www.co.polk.or.us/

The official website for State of Oregon: https://www.oregon.gov/

Footnotes ...

<1>We use the term 'Historic' broadly and it generally means that the community no longer exists. However, it can also mean that the community might still exist, but was significantly larger or had a more 'official' existence in the past than it does now. Unfortunately our sources of data have proven to be unreliable. If you can provide us with more specific information about Bethel, please let us know so that we can improve our accuracy.
<2>If you're interested in how the shape of Oregon's counties, including Polk, have changed over time, we recommend the Atlas of Historical County Boundaries.
<3>The location has been supplied by the Geographic Names Information System - which is maintained by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS). While these values should be definitive, we found that accuracy can vary and you should double-check the location if accuracy is required.
<4>The elevation is an estimate for the area around Bethel - it will be higher in some places and lower in others.
<5>Area code (971) is an overlay for area code (503).
<6>While we're fans and frequent users of TripAdvisor, you should know that we're also members of the TripAdvisor affiliate program.
<7>A copy of their list with background information can be found at:

      https://cblevins.github.io/us-post-offices/data-biography/




 

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This page was last modified/updated: 07 Apr 2024