Oregon Trail emigrants left established homes and farms in the East to begin again in the Oregon Country, packing simple farm wagons with enough food, clothing, and supplies to last an entire year before crops could be planted and harvested in Oregon. The journey was long and arduous, and much was lost or abandoned along the way, including treasured possessions, wagons, and livestock, yet faith endured. Many entered the Willamette Valley a few miles east of this site and, with Elizabeth Julia Goltra in 1853, gave thanks for being watched over across the dreary plains and mountains. Esther Belle McMillan Hanna likewise wrote on September 16, 1852, of coming in sight of houses, gardens, fields, and fences after six long months and of gratitude to God for being spared through dangers, sickness, trial, difficulty, toil, and fatigue to reach the Pacific shores. This humble church stands as testimony to the enduring faith of Oregon's early settlers. Built in 1894 as the Buenker German Methodist Church, it originally stood a few miles to the southeast near the intersection of Strowbridge and Springwater roads, then was moved to this site in 1967 and restored in 1970-71 by the Baker Cabin Historical Society.