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Our Genealogy Helper

Introduction ...

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

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


We have a couple of goals for our Gazetteer:

  • That it be a tool which helps us with planning our trips.
  • We're trying to shape our Gazetteer as a tool to help us understand the community in which our ancestors lived, the community that was part of their daily lives.
  • On our trips, we try to visit those places where our ancestors left their footprints.

By learning about Lost Valley (and the surrounding area) during the time that our ancestors lived, we hope to have a better understanding of both their community and its relationship to their lifes. We hope that this tool helps to give us an insight into their world.

As we add data and organize our Gazetteer to help with our family research, we will be adding to this our Genealogical Helper for Lost Valley. While we don't have information that is specific to any given person or family, we intend to expand our understanding about where and how people lived.

Name Variations for Lost Valley ...

When searching records, keep in mind that names and their spelling can change over time. Our sources include documents like maps, railroad schedules, Travel, Express and Shipping Guides. Many of these documents date from the 1800's and it's common to find spelling differences.

Although we can't give a definitive list, hopefully the following will give you a feel for the variations that might occur.

For example, a typical abbreviation for Lost Valley: Lost Vly. (or less commonly used: Lost Vally. or Lost Vlly.)

You might be interested in other communities that are also named Lost Valley. More information can be found on our Tidbits & Trivia Page for Lost Valley.

If you have information about these names (such as the reason for the change, date of change, the origin of the name), please Contact Us.

Neighboring Counties ...

When searching for family records, we have frequently made the mistake of not checking the neighboring counties.

For example, we have great-grandparents who lived in the southeast corner of their home county. During their lives, most doctors were in the next county to the east. Almost all of the nearby churches and cemeteries were in the county to the south.

So when searching for records, we had our best success by looking in neighboring counties instead of the county in which they lived:  their home county contained property and probate records; the county to the east contained birth and death records; the county to the south contained their burial records. If we hadn't included the neighboring counties, we would have missed many valuable sources of information.

If you're in a similar situation, we hope that the following information helps.

Although our information shows that the community of Lost Valley is historic, it would have been located within present day Wheeler County.

To see how the shape of Oregon's counties may have changed over time, we recommend the Atlas of Historical County Boundaries.

The following counties adjoin and form the boundaries of Wheeler County: Crook, Gilliam, Grant, Jefferson & Sherman.

Below are the counties that are near Lost Valley. For each of these counties, we show a sample of those communities that are closest to Lost Valley:

  • Wheeler County     (The home county of Lost Valley)
    • The following are listed by their distance from Lost Valley, with the one closest to Lost Valley listed first.
    • Kinzua ‑ Historic
      (5 miles [8 km] to the southwest)
      • Kinzua is located in Wheeler County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Kinzua
    • Winlock
      (11 miles [17.7 km] to the southeast)
      • Winlock is located in Wheeler County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Winlock
    • Fossil
      (11 miles [17.7 km] to the west)
    • Spray
      (18 miles [29 km] to the southeast)
    • Richmond ‑ Historic
      (22 miles [35.4 km] to the south)
      • Richmond is located in Wheeler County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Richmond
    • Waldron ‑ Historic
      (22 miles [35.4 km] to the south)
      • Waldron is located in Wheeler County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Waldron
  • Gilliam County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Lost Valley, with the one closest to Lost Valley listed first.
    • Lonerock
      (6 miles [9.7 km] to the east)
      • Lonerock is located in Gilliam County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Lonerock
      • Population from the 2020 Census: 22 people
    • Mayville
      (9 miles [14.5 km] to the west)
      • Mayville is located in Gilliam County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Mayville
    • Condon
      (15 miles [24.1 km] to the northwest)
    • Clem
      (26 miles [41.8 km] to the north)
      • Clem is located in Gilliam County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Clem
    • Ajax ‑ Historic
      (30 miles [48.3 km] to the northwest)
      • Ajax is located in Gilliam County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Ajax
  • Grant County
  • Morrow County
    • The following are listed by their distance from Lost Valley, with the one closest to Lost Valley listed first.
    • Eightmile
      (16 miles [25.7 km] to the northeast)
      • Eightmile is located in Morrow County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Eightmile
    • Gooseberry
      (17 miles [27.4 km] to the north)
      • Gooseberry is located in Morrow County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Gooseberry
    • Hardman
      (17 miles [27.4 km] to the northeast)
      • Hardman is located in Morrow County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Hardman
      • Hardman has also been known as:
      • Dairyville
      • Dogtown
      • Raw Dog
      • Yaller Dog
    • Heck and Gone ‑ Historic
      (30 miles [48.3 km] to the east)
      • Heck and Gone is located in Morrow County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Heck and Gone
    • Heppner
      (30 miles [48.3 km] to the northeast)
    • Lexington
      (30 miles [48.3 km] to the northeast)
  • Wasco County
    • Clarno
      (25 miles [40.2 km] to the southwest)
      • Clarno is located in Wasco County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Clarno

For an expanded list of the communities that are closest to Lost Valley, see our County-by-County Page for Lost Valley.

Cemeteries Near Lost Valley ...

Below are cemeteries that are in the vicinity of Lost Valley.

This is a new section and is likely to have errors. If you find an error, such as a missing cemetery or we have the wrong name, please let us know. If you know of them, we would also appreciate learning about previous or alternate names.

Although we don't have the information ourselves, if you need information about a burial or interment, photos, transcripts, how to contact the cemetery or local authorities, please visit our list of websites on our Genealogy Helper Page for Lost Valley - one of the links might be able to help.

If not found below, our Cemetery List for Lost Valley covers a larger area, with the cemeteries listed in alphabetical order.

The following cemeteries are listed based on their distance from Lost Valley, with the one closest to Lost Valley listed first.

  • Lost Valley Cemetery
    (2 miles [3.2 km] to the northeast)
  • Lonerock Cemetery
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the east)
  • Papersack Cemetery
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the northwest)
  • Masonic Cemetery
    (10 miles [16.1 km] to the west)
  • Mayville Cemetery
    (10 miles [16.1 km] to the west)
  • Fossil IOOF Cemetery
    (11 miles [17.7 km] to the southwest)
  • Winlock Cemetery
    (11 miles [17.7 km] to the southeast)
  • Hardman IOOF Cemetery
    (15 miles [24.1 km] to the northeast)
  • IOOF Cemetery
    (15 miles [24.1 km] to the northwest)
  • King of Peace Cemetery
    (15 miles [24.1 km] to the northwest)
  • Masonic Cemetery
    (15 miles [24.1 km] to the northwest)
  • St. Joseph Cemetery
    (15 miles [24.1 km] to the northwest)
  • Continue List   (18 more) ...
    • Haystack Cemetery
      (17 miles [27.4 km] to the southeast)
    • Hardman Cemetery
      (17 miles [27.4 km] to the northeast)
    • Gooseberry Cemetery
      (17 miles [27.4 km] to the north)

Nearby Communities in 1895 ...

We've built the following list with information that came from an Atlas published by Rand McNally in 1895. The Atlas had details such as the population of the community (which appears to have come from the 1890 Census) and whether there was a post office and/or railroad service available. We also indicate if the community no longer exists and is now historic.

While we didn't find Lost Valley in the Atlas, the following 1895 communities would have been found near the current location of Lost Valley.

These communities are listed based on their distance from Lost Valley, with the one closest to Lost Valley listed first.

  • Lonerock
    (6 miles [9.7 km] to the east)
    • Lonerock is located in Gilliam County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Lonerock
    • Population from the 2020 Census: 22 people
  • Mayville
    (9 miles [14.5 km] to the west)
    • Mayville is located in Gilliam County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Mayville
  • Fossil
    (11 miles [17.7 km] to the west)
  • Condon
    (15 miles [24.1 km] to the northwest)
  • Eightmile
    (16 miles [25.7 km] to the northeast)
    • Eightmile is located in Morrow County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Eightmile
  • Hardman
    (17 miles [27.4 km] to the northeast)
    • Hardman is located in Morrow County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Hardman
    • Hardman has also been known as:
    • Dairyville
    • Dogtown
    • Raw Dog
    • Yaller Dog
  • Gooseberry
    (17 miles [27.4 km] to the north)
    • Gooseberry is located in Morrow County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Gooseberry
  • Igo ‑ Historic
    (19 miles [30.6 km] to the northwest)
    • Igo is located in Gilliam County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Igo
  • Clem
    (26 miles [41.8 km] to the north)
    • Clem is located in Gilliam County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Clem

We've also created an expanded list of communities that existed in the 1890's and were located in the area around Lost Valley. See our List of 1890's Communities around Lost Valley.

Newspapers Published in Lost Valley ...

An ongoing effort between the Library of Congress and the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) has resulted in the National Digital Newspaper Program (NDNP).

To share their results, the partnership has created the Chronicling America website. The goal of this partnership is to assemble a database about the current and historic newspapers of the United States. This includes a growing collection of scanned images from selected papers. All of it available to the public on their website.

Using information that we've taken from the Chronicling America website, we've identified 19 newspapers that have been published in the area around Lost Valley.

Although we're unaware of any newspapers that were published in the immediate area of Lost Valley, there are papers which were published within 30 miles [48.3 km]<3>. A list of those papers, sorted by paper name, can be found on the Extended Newspaper List for Lost Valley.

Websites to Help With Your Genealogy Research ...

When we do our genealogical research, we begin with the websites from Cyndi's List, FamilySearch and Genealogy Trails. These professional and volunteer websites offer the information directly or else point to where you can find it. Their information is open to everyone.

To help you get started, the following links will take you to the pages that are relevant to Lost Valley:

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 Lost Valley, please let us know so that we can improve our accuracy.
<2>While we're fans and frequent users of TripAdvisor, you should know that we're also members of the TripAdvisor affiliate program.
<3>Our distances are not driving distances, but are calculated as a 'straight-line' distance. A straight line distance ignores things like rivers, canyons, lakes, et cetera - it's truly a line from Point A (ie- Lost Valley) to Point B. In other words: 'As the crow flies'.