# Oregon Geographic Names (1952)/C

​Cabbage Hill, Umatilla County. The notion that the Oregon Trail comes down Cabbage Hill into Umatilla Valley east of Pendleton does not seem to be borne out by facts. The highway traverses and descends Emigrant Hill and is not on Cabbage Hill at all. Cabbage Hill is a long spur extending southwest from Emigrant Hill, ending at Table Rock not far fro merry at thultnomala Riverd Office ​above McKay Creek. Cabbage Hill School is about a mile south of the Oregon Trail. The geography of this locality is shown on the USGS topographic map of the Pendleton quadrangle. In March, 1946, the compiler received a letter from Mrs. J. E. Jones of Elgin containing a statement by her uncle, G. L. Dunn of Gibbon, about the naming of Cabbage Hill. Dunn says that in the fall of 1897 he was herding sheep on the hill above North Fork McKay Creek and he named the locality Cabbage Hill because of a prominent cabbage patch near the top of the slope. This name was soon adopted by the local residents and has been in use ever since. Dunn says the cabbages were on land farmed by one Huderman.
Cabin Creek, Douglas County. This stream flows into Calapooya Creek near Oakland. Both the Southern Pacific Company line and the Pacific Highway follow Cabin Creek between Oakland and Rice Hill. It is said that the Rev. J. A. Cornwall built a cabin on this stream in the fall of 1846, in which he and his family spent the following winter. This is believed to have been the first cabin built in Douglas County by citizens of the United States, and the stream was named for it.
Cable Cove, Baker County. Cable Cove is well up in the Blue Mountains in the northwest part of the county. Cable Cove is drained by Silver Creek. These names were applied as the result of mining activities long ago. Cable Cove was named for a man who used that spelling. The compiler does not know his first name but he was prominent in mining development. It is said that other members of the famliy spelled the name Cabel. For a time there was a post office in the vicinity of Cable Cove which was operated with the name Cableville. Cableville post office was established October 24, 1901, with Thomas Costello the first of five postmasters. The office was discontinued in May, 1909.
Cache Creek, Wallowa County. This creek flows into Snake River in township 6 north, range 47 east, in the extreme northeast of Oregon. It was named by A. C. Smith, a pioneer of the Wallowa Valley. He and some companions were scouting in the neighborhood in the '70s and found Indian caches on a bar at the mouth of the stream.
Cahill Creek, Clackamas County. This is a short stream that flows northward into Beaver Creek about two miles east of New Era. It bears the name of Enos Cahill, who was born in Ohio in 1844, a Union soldier in the Civil War and later a homesteader on the banks of this stream. He held a number of public offices in Clackamas County and died in 1913. He was favorably remembered in the neighborhood, and in 1941 a group of former students of Leland School asked to have his name applied to this stream which has its source in a number of springs on the Cahill homestead. The name has been adopted by USBGN.
Cake, Malheur County. Cake post office was in the extreme north part of the county, almost on the watershed between Burnt River and Malheur River, and at the head of Mormon Basin. The office was established to serve the headquarters of the Rainbow mine, and the mine itself was just over the line in Baker County. Cake was the name of a Portland business man who was interested in the development of the property. Cake post office was established February 3, 1917, with Isaac Blumauer first postmaster. Carl H. Connet was the second postmaster, and he wrote from Albany in August, 1946, giving some information about the place. The office was closed in March, 1920. It was reestablished June 21, 1922, with the name Rainbow Mine, but the compiler does not know the clos​ing date of this office. The mine was named because of association with the place where the pot of gold was supposed to be. There has been a change of the county boundary in this locality, but it is not clear just how it affects the information recorded above.
Calamut Lake, Douglas County. Calamut Lake is in the extreme northeast part of the county. The writer has been unable to secure definite information as to how it got its name, but it seems probable that it may have been an early form of Klamath, and may have been so called by emigrants. The form of spelling here used is that adopted by the USBGN.
Calapooya Mountains, Douglas and Lane counties. These mountains are a westward spur of the Cascade Range and constitute the watershed between the Willamette and Umpqua rivers. Calapooya Mountains join the Cascade Range at Cowhorn Mountain with an elevation of 7666 feet in the northeast corner of Douglas County. The Indians of the Willamette Valley were of the Kalapooian family. Calapooya Mountains bear the name. See Lewis' Tribes of the Columbia Valley, page 178. The Calapooya Indians were indolent and peaceful, and not disposed to trade (ibid.) The name is given as Calapoosie by David Douglas in his journals, OHQ, volume VI, page 85; Col-lap-poh-yea-ass, by Alexander Ross, in Adventures of the First Settlers on the Oregon, pages 235, 236; Call-law-poh-yea-as, in his Fur Hunters of the Far West, volume I, page 108; Kala-pooyhas, in Townsend's Narrative, page 175; Calla-puya, by Wilkes. Lewis and Clark give Collapoewah; Parker's journal gives Calapooa; Lee and Frost Calapooyas. Calapooya is properly the name of a division of the Kalapooian family formerly living between the Willamette and Umpqua rivers. The USBGN, has adopted the spelling Calapooya. Calapooya River is a stream in Linn County, rising in the western slopes of the Cascade Range and joining the Willamette River at Albany. Calapooya Creek rises on the south slopes of Calapooya Mountains in Douglas County and flows through Oakland and joins the Umpqua River at Umpqua. The origin of the name of these streams is the same as that of Calapooya Mountains.
Calf Gulch, Jefferson County. Calf Gulch is east of Ashwood, in the Donnybrook country, and is the veritable place where an event took place that gave Donnybrook its name. The general locality was once called Axhandle, and additional information will be found under that heading. The Bend Bulletin, April 20, 1943, says editorially: "... one of the community's names, Donnybrook, was derived from a little social affair in Calf gulch, where guns, as well as axe handles, were used, and one man, Tom Kinney, received a bullet wound." See also under Donnybrook and Kilts. Calf Gulch was named during the days of pioneer stockmen, but the compiler does not know the exact reason.
California Gulch, Baker County. California Gulch, which is about ten miles airline southwest of Baker, drains south into Powder River. It is just a little west of the famous pioneer mining camp of Auburn. It was named in the eastern Oregon gold rush of the early '60s because of the presence of many California miners in that part of the diggings. Hiatt in his Thirty-one Years in Baker County has a good deal to say about the rivalry between the visitors from California, called Tarheads, and the Oregonians, dubbed Webfeet.
Calimus, Klamath County. The Southern Pacific Company formerly ​had a station named Sprague in Klamath County, but in 1926 changed the name to Calimus to avoid duplication. The name Calimus was taken from Calimus Butte.
Calimus Butte, Klamath County. This is an important landmark near the center of the Klamath Indian Reservation and is used as a lookout station. Captain 0. C. Applegate, authority on the Klamath country, said the origin of the name was obscure. One Klamath Indian told him it meant Flat Butte.
Calor, Klamath County. Calor is a station on the Southern Pacific Company Cascade Line just north of the Oregon-California state line. The name is synthetic and was made up from parts of the names of the two states. There are many of these combination names in the United States..
Calvert, Douglas County. Calvert post office was established May 3, 1892, with Mrs. John (Laura V.) Applegate first and only postmaster. The office was closed September 5, 1894, and the business turned over to Louis post office. Calvert was about four miles east of Yoncalla in Scott Valley on what had been the R. M. Kelly donation land claim. Mrs. Applegate planned to name the office Scott Valley, but postal authorities objected to a name with two words and also because it was so nearly the same as Scottsburg in the same county. It was then planned to name the office Kelly, but this was unacceptable to the authorities because of duplication. At length Calvert was selected. It is reported that Calvert was a family name in the Applegate clan.
Camas Valley, Douglas County. The word Camas is used to describe geographic features in many parts of Oregon, including Camas Valley in Douglas County, Camas Swale in Lane County, Camas Swale in Douglas County, Camas Creek in Umatilla County, and others. The name is taken from that of a favorite food of the western Indians, the Camassia bulb, a plant related to the scilla. The word was derived from the Nootka Indian word Chamass, meaning "fruit" or "sweet." It was adopted into the Chinook jargon as camas, kamass, lacmass, and lakamass. The locality of Camas Valley was a place where the Indians gathered supplies of the sweetish bulbs of the blue-flowered "Lakamass."
Camp Abbot, Deschutes County. On December 4, 1942, it was announced by the War Department that an army engineer replacement and training center would be named Camp Abbot, in honor of Brigadier-General Henry Larcom Abbot. Abbot's distinguished career is described in this volume under the heading Abbot Creek, On September 2, 1835, in command of a detached party engaged on one of the projects of the Pacific Railroad Surveys, he camped on the site of the engineer center. Camp Abbot was dedicated on September 2, 1943, and was in active service for about a year.
Camp Adair, Benton and Polk Counties. Henry Rodney Adair was a scion of a prominent Oregon pioneer family and was a native of Astoria. He was graduated from West Point and became a lieutenant of cavalry in the regular army. He was killed at Carrizal, Mexico, about 90 miles south of El Paso, June 21, 1916, when Mexican soldiers made a surprise attack on a small detachment of American troops. Lieutenant Adair conducted a spirited defense but the few troopers in his immediate vicinity were greatly outnumbered and many were killed. Camp Adair, on the west side of the Willamette Valley north of Corvallis, contains ​
about 50,000 acres and was built in 1942-43 as a training center for World War II. It was formally dedicated September 4, 1943, although occupied by troops for some time prior to that date. See news articles in the Oregonian, August 27, 1943, and in the Oregon Journal, September 4, 1943. The camp was named in honor of Lieutenant Adair. Camp Adair post office was established June 1, 1942. It was discontinued May 23, 1946.
CAMP ALDEN, Jackson County. After the battle of Evans Creek, Aug. ust 24, 1853, which was an important event in the Rogue River Indian outbreak, General Lane put the white soldiers into a camp at Hailey Ferry near Upper Table Rock. This camp was called Camp Alden in compliment to Captain Bradford Ripley Alden of the Fourth U. S. Infantry, who had been severely wounded on Evans Creek. After a few weeks, Fort Lane supplanted Camp Alden. The exact location of Camp Alden is not known. Hailey Ferry later became Bybee Ferry. Walling's statement in History of Southern Oregon, page 220, to the effect that Alden died from the effect of his wound two years later is not borne out by Heitman's Historical Register, which gives the date as September 10, 1870.
CAMP ALVORD, Malheur County. Camp Alvord was established in June, 1864, in what is now known as Alvord Valley at the east base of Steens Mountain. Lieutenant J. A. Waymire and troops of the First Oregon Volunteer Cavalry had camped in the locality early in the year and had dug some rifle-pits during an engagement with the Indians. In June, Captain George B. Currey of the same regiment, in command of cavalry and infantry, found these pits and selected the site for an establishment which he called Camp Alvord in compliment to Brigadier-General Benjamin Alvord. For a history of Alvord, see under ALVORD LAKE. Currey caused some additional earthworks to be thrown up in the form of a star, but the compiler has been unable to learn of any permanent structures. For details about the history of this camp, see Bancroft's History of Oregon, volume II, page 499 et seq. Camp Alvord was used until June, 1866, when it was evacuated and the troops moved to a new camp on Whitehorse Creek called Camp C. F. Smith.
CAMP BAKER, Jackson County. Alice A. Sargent wrote a short account of Camp Baker in the Medford Mail-Tribune September 13, 1931. The camp was established in 1862 and was garrisoned by part of the First Oregon Volunteer Cavalry. It was named in honor of Major-General E. D. Baker who was killed at the battle of Balls Bluff in 1861. See under BAKER County. The site of Camp Baker was about a half a mile west of Phoenix and not far from Jacksonville. The various buildings were built of hewn pine logs. Coleman Creek flowed between the mess hall and the stables. In 1931 there were a few mouldering logs to mark the spot. The compiler does not know when the camp was evacuated but it was used as late as 1865. In January, 1944, T. V. Williams of Medford wrote the compiler that the D.A.R, marker for Camp Baker stands about 75 feet west of Coleman Creek on the south side of the east-west road through the middle of section 16, township 38 south, range 1 west. Camp Barlow, Clackamas County. Camp Barlow is mentioned in official military records, but it does not seem to have been a formal establishment and was perhaps not more than a campground. It was used in the '60s as a place of enlistment or rendezvous for Oregon volunteers. Tradition at Oregon City says that the camp was on the property of William Barlow adjacent to Molalla River, or just northeast of the present D. Baker UNTY. The far fra ​
community of Barlow. In March, 1944, William Tull of Canby reported that his grandfather, William S. Tull, was one of the first to enlist at Camp Barlow, and that Mrs. William Barlow served dinner to the recruiting staff the first day. The record shows that William Tull, aged 18, enlisted in E Company of the First Oregon Volunteer Cavalry on February 5, 1862. Camp Barlow does not seem to have been long in use.
CAMP CARSON, Union County. The origin of the name Camp Carson, for a place near the headwaters of Grande Ronde River in the south part of the county, is a mystery as far as the writer is concerned. There seems to be no satisfactory explanation of the name nor of the exact location of the place. A War Department map of 1887 shows Camp Carson on Fly Creek in the west part of the county near the toll house on the road between Pilot Rock and Powder River Valley. The place is marked "Abandoned" and there is an implication that it had been a military establishment. However, a diligent search of military records fails to bring to light any mention of such a camp, and there is no mention of it in campaign reports. Modern maps show Camp Carson in quite a different location. It now appears to be about ten miles southeast of the location on the War Department map, and a little to the northeast of Chicken Hill. It is possible that it was named by gold seekers from the Carson City area of Nevada. There were many Nevadans in eastern Oregon in the early '60s and they may have brought the name along with them. Camp Carson was well known in the mining days of the '60s, which seems to set its naming at the time of the gold rush and prior to military activities.
CAMP CASTAWAY, Coos County. This appropriate descriptive name was applied to a military camp used by soldiers and sailors who got ashore from the wreck of the transport Captain Lincoln a couple of miles north of the entrance to Coos Bay. The Captain Lincoln sailed from San Francisco December 28, 1851, with C Troop of the First Dragoons under command of Lieutenant H. W. Stanton. A medical officer, Dr. Francis Sorrel, was also on board. Instead of making Port Orford, the ship got into difficulties and in very bad weather was wrecked on the morning of January 3, 1852. A report, dated at Benicia, March 24, 1852, is in the annual report of the Secretary of War, dated December 4, 1852, page 109, and gives many details. There are other reports and letters about Camp Castaway in the same volume. Stories of the wreck are in Dodge's Hist tory of Coos and Curry Counties, page 144, et seq. See also Victor's Early Indian Wars of Oregon, page 290. Camp Castaway was apparently used about four months, and was a tent town. The troopers finally reached Port Orford after some remarkable adventures. Camp C. F. SMITH, Harney County. This camp was established in June, 1866, during the Indian outbreaks. It was on Whitehorse Creek, probably not far from the Whitehorse Ranch, but the compiler has been unable to get details about it. It was established when Camp Alvord was evacuated. See under that heading. Presumably it was named for Major-General Charles Ferguson Smith, a distinguished officer of the reg. ular army. This camp was abandoned November 9, 1869.
CAMP CLATSOP, Clatsop County. Camp Clatsop, on Clatsop Plains, is named for Clatsop County and the Clatsop Indians. In February, 1944, Colonel Elmer V. Wooton, acting adjutant general of Oregon, wrote the compiler: "Camp Clatsop was established in 1927 under a lease arrangement and part of the camp was purchased in 1934. Additional land was ​
acquired during subsequent years and at the present time over 1000 acres are embraced in the camp site." This post has generally been used for summer camps of the Oregon National Guard.
CAMP COLFAX, Malheur County. This camp was used for a few months during the Indian wars of the '60s and is mentioned in the Oregon Adjutant General's Report, 1865-66. It is described as being where the Canyon City-Boise road crossed Willow Creek. The reminiscences of William M. Hilleary of F Compay of the First Oregon Volunteer Infantry are on file at the Oregon Historical Society and they have some amusing references to the post as well as some specific information. The company established Camp Colfax about August 24, 1865, on South Willow Creek about six miles east of Ironside Mountain. It was apparent that temporary protection would not stand against the weather, so in late October logs were snaked and hauled in from Ironside Mountain and at least two and maybe three cabins were built, with common walls so as to save logs. The roofs were poles and willows, covered with earth and there were good fireplaces of stone. The camp seems to have been used as a way-station by outfits other than F Company. The detachment proceeded to Fort Boise at the end of the year and Hilleary says with satisfaction that the cabins were set fire on December 27, 1865, and the soldiers marched away. He does not say for whom the camp was named, but it was probably intended to honor Schuyler Colfax, popular member of Congress from Indiana and in 1865 speaker of the House of Representatives. Colfax visited Oregon in the summer of that year.
CAMP CREEK, Clackamas County. This stream rises near Govern. ment Camp, and flows westward into Zigzag River. Laurel Hill, the terror of the emigrant trains, lies between these two streams like a wedge, and over its brow members of the Barlow party let their wagons down by ropes snubbed around the trees. It seems probable that this stream was named by Joel Palmer of the Barlow party on October 13, 1845. The day before Palmer made what may have been the first attempt by a white man to climb Mount Hood. He did not reach the top, but went far enough to satisfy himself that the mountain could be climbed. The details in his diary are not entirely clear as to how he got down nor where he camped, but the next morning he named a nearby stream Camp Creek, and it is the belief of the compiler that it is the Camp Creek of today that was so named, See Palmer's journal, Thwaites' Early Western Travels, volume XXX, page 137. It is possible that David Douglas, the botanist tried to climb Mount Hood in 1833. See letter from Archibald McDonald, OHQ, volume VI, page 309.
CAMP CREEK, Douglas County. This stream flows into Mill Creek, north of Loon Lake. Camp Creek was named in 1853 by a party from Scottsburg headed by S. S. Williams which camped on the stream on the way to Loon Lake. See Walling's History of Southern Oregon, page 439.
CAMP CREEK, Lane County. Camp Creek is a prominent stream that flows into McKenzie River from the north between Thurston and Walterville. It was called Camp Creek in very early pioneer days. There are two stories about the origin of the name, both of which may be true. One is that pioneer settlers found an Indian camp near the stream, called Chaston by the Indians themselves. On the other hand Walling, in Illustrated History of Lane County, page 468, says that the stream was named because a party of pioneers chasing Indian stock thieves camped there. ​
Walling gives several paragraphs of history of the little valley of Camp Creek. Camp Creek post office was established July 12, 1871, with William Pattison, Jr., first of seven postmasters. This office was closed to Springfield, September 15, 1922. It is apparent from an inspection of maps of various dates that Camp Creek office moved a good deal depending on the availability of postmasters. CÁMP CREEK, Lane County. The stream referred to in this heading rises south of Stony Point and flows south into Siuslaw near Alma in the west part of the county. Writing of this stream, P. M. Morse, Lane County Engineer, under date of August 4, 1943, says: "... has usually been called Camp Creek, as it has been a favorite camping spot during the summer and for the hunters during the deer season."
CAMP CREEK, Wallowa County. This stream drains a considerable area in the vicinity of Zumwalt and flows into Sheep Creek a little above Imnaha. In early days stockmen going from Wallowa Valley into the Imnaha country found a good campground near the mouth of the stream, and as a result the name Camp Creek was applied. Also the Indians had a campsite on the stream which they used traveling from Chesnimnus south to other localities. The first homesteader on the stream was Waldo Chase. Trail Creek flows into Camp Creek.
CAMP CURREY, Harney County. According to the Oregon Adjutant General's Report, 1865-66, Camp Currey was established in the fall of 1865 at Indian Springs on what is now known as Silver Creek. In January, 1944, J. C. Cecil of Burns wrote the compiler that Camp Currey was at what is now known as the Cecil 71 Ranch, a pioneer landmark. "Pat" Cecil sent the following extract from a statement made by the Adjutant General's Office at Washington, April 23, 1930: "The camp was established in August, 1865, and was abandoned in May, 1866. No formally declared reservation existed at this point. It was occupied on September 30, 1865, by Companies D and I, 4th California Infantry, detachment of Company E, Ist Washington Territorial Infantry and a detachment of Company K, Ist Oregon Infantry. In November, 1865, the 2nd Battalion, 14th U. S. Infantry, was stationed at this post. Company K, Ist Oregon Infantry, was also at the post. It was commanded on September 30, 1865, by Captain L. S. Scott, Company D, 4th California Infantry, and on November 30, 1865, Ist Lieut. Frank W. Perry, Brevet Major, Company E, 2nd Battalion, 14th U. S. Infantry, assumed command of the post and remained until the post was abandoned in May, 1866." In addition "Pat" Cecil wrote the compiler: "Many years ago we removed the foundation stones of about forty cabins, measuring about 10 by 12 feet, and judging by the charred remains, I think they were built of hewed logs. There is an excavation on the hillside that may have been used as a cellar or store. house. There were three graves back of the camp, apparently of soldiers." The camp was named for Colonel George B. Currey, who had been an officer in the First Oregon Volunteer Cavalry but who had succeeded to the command of the Columbia District when Brigadier-General George Wright was drowned. The spelling, Curry, is wrong.
CAMP DAHLGREN, Crook County. Camp Dahlgren was established August 22, 1864, by Captain John M. Drake of the First Oregon Volun. teer Cavalry, and was named for Colonel Ulric Dahlgren who was killed March 2, 1864, in a cavalry engagement near Richmond. Drake had already occupied Camps Maury and Gibbs, but had to move because of amp, was namede graves back ofave been used Weicommand of the regon Volunde George B. Cu apparently off som ​
poor forage. Camp Gibbs was apparently on what is now known as Drake Creek near the north base of the Maury Mountains, and Camp Dahlgren is described as being twenty miles to the northeast on Beaver Creek. Drake's report says that Camp Dahlgren was abandoned September 20, 1864, but he gives no details about its location. It was probably not far from the present town of Paulina.
CAMP Day, Klamath County. In the files of the Oregon Historical Society are family letters from Lieut. Lorenzo Lorain of the Third Artillery which give a few details of a march made by Lorain and a detachment from Fort Umpqua to a point near Klamath River, where a post called Camp Day was established. Lorain and his party left Fort Umpqua June 26, 1860, and proceeded by way of Scottsburg and Canyonville to the Rogue River Valley. The soldiers passed through Jacksonville, and from that point followed the Yreka road to the junction with the emigrant trail from the Klamath country. This trail was followed to the vicinity of Klamath River, where a camp was made July 16, 1860, apparently on Spencer Creek about half a mile from the river, although the identification is by no means certain. This establishment was called Camp Day, in honor of Lieutenant Edward Henry Day, also of the Third Artillery. Day was a native of Virginia and a graduate of the Military Academy. He died January 2, 1860, apparently at Fort Umpqua, and this circumstance undoubtedly impelled Lorain to select his name for the camp. Lorain left Camp Day with his troops October 6 and arrived at Fort Umpqua October 18, 1860. Lorain was interested in photography, which was a novelty in 1860. He took with him plates and chemicals and rigged up an improvised dark room. He took a picture of Camp Day, and this photograph is also on file at the Society rooms.
CAMP ELLIFF, Douglas County. Preston's Map of Oregon, 1856, shows the Elliff place in section 11, township 32 south, range 5 west. This is near where the Pacific Highway first reaches Cow Creek Valley after going south from Canyonville, A post called Camp Elliff was established in this locality in the Rogue River War of 1855-56, which was occupied by Captain Laban Buoy and a detachment of B Company, Second Oregon Mounted Volunteers, mostly from Lane County. It was Buoy's duty to keep the road open along Cow Creek. The compiler has found no record of any permanent structures at this camp. See Victor's Early Indian Wars of Oregon, page 368.
CAMP Gibbs, Crook County. This camp at the north base of Maury Mountains was in use for a short time in the summer of 1864 during the Snake War and was probably named for Governor Addison C. Gibbs. Camp Maury was established on what is now Maury Creek on May 18, 1864, but because of poor forage, the post was moved west about five miles on July 21, 1864, and named Camp Gibbs. The compiler does not know the exact location, but it seems apparent that it was on or near what is now known as Drake Creek. Captain John M. Drake of the First Oregon Volunteer Cavalry was in command of the camp. The post was moved again August 22, on account of poor forage. The new post was called Camp Dahlgren.
CAMP GORDON, Douglas County. Camp Gordon is one of the elusive military camps used in the Rogue River War of 1855-56. It is described by Mrs. F. F. Victor in Early Indian Wars of Oregon, page 368, as being eight miles above the mouth of Cow Creek. The compiler is of the opin ​ion this means up the main route of travel, for there was no road up Cow Creek itself. Eight miles south along the route of travel would put Camp Gordon somewhere on Canyon Creek south of Canyonville. The camp was in command of Captain Samuel Gordon and was doubtless named for him.
CAMP GROUND, Multnomah County. Camp Ground post office was established May 19, 1884, with Edward F. Wright postmaster, and remained in service only until June 9, 1884. In fact the office may never have been in actual operation. It was just at this time that Gresham post office was established. That event took place on May 15, 1884, and James F. Roberts was the first postmaster at Gresham. There was a good deal of rivalry between the proponents of the two offices, Camp Ground and Gresham, and not a little bad feeling developed among the partisans. William H. Stanley wrote from Gresham in July, 1947, that the proposed offices were within rock throwing distance of each other, at or near the intersection of Main Street and Powell Valley Road. Gresham beat Camp Ground to the draw. Mr. Stanley says that a campground was situated near Main Street and Powell Valley Road, with some small cabins used during camp meetings. Edward F. Wright had some connection with this campground, probably managed it at camp meetings.
CAMP HENDERSON, Malheur County. Camp Henderson was one of the establishments of the Indian wars of the '60s. On May 26, 1864, Captain George B. Currey of the First Oregon Volunteer Cavalry camped on Crooked Creek about eight miles southwest of the mouth of Jordan Creek and called the place Camp Henderson in compliment to J. H. D. Henderson, representative in Congress from Oregon, 1865-67. The stream was called Gibbs Creek in honor of Governor A. C. Gibbs, but that name did not persist. Camp Henderson was not long in use and was a very simple establishment. See Bancroft's History of Oregon, volume II, page 499 and Oregon Adjutant General's Report, 1865-66, page 36. Camp LINCOLN, Grant County. Camp Lincoln, named for Abraham Lincoln, was established by Lieutenant J. A. Waymire of the First Ore. gon Volunteer Cavalry March 15, 1864, and abandoned May 1, 1864. It was used during the Indian outbreaks, but was a temporary post. See Oregon Adjutant General's Report, 1865-66, page 67, et seq. It was on South Fork John Day River, but the compiler has been unable to get the exact location. Probably it was near the present community of Dayville. · CAMP LOGAN, Grant County. Camp Logan was established during the Indian troubles in the summer of 1865. The compiler has been unable to get the date it was occupied or when it was abandoned, but it was not long in use and not a large camp. William M. Hilleary, in recollections in the Oregon Historical Society library, says the camp was established by Lieutenant A. B. Ingram of the First Oregon Volunteer Infantrv and quarters were built for 40 men. This was in August or September, 1865. The place is mentioned in the Oregon Adjutant General's Report, 1865-66, but no details are given. In January, 1944, R. H. Sullens of Prairie City wrote the compiler that Camp Logan was on Strawberry Creek about six miles south of Prairie City near what is now the Roger Kent ranch. This information agrees with War Department maps, although the stream was apparently known in 1865 as Indian Creek and later as Logan Creek. In fact Strawberry Mountain was once called Logan Butte on account of the camp. The post was probably named for ​
Major-General John A. Logan of Illinois, who had made himself popular with the military by resigning his post in Congress in 1862 and joining the army. C. W. Brown of Canyon City has written the compiler confirming the location at the Kent ranch and says there were several log houses, the remains of some of them still in evidence in January, 1944. Formerly this was the J. J. Cozart ranch. An old box stove from Camp Logan is still in use at the Prairie City Grange Hall. Camp MAURY, Crook County. Camp Maury was about 30 miles airline southeast of Prineville, on the south side of Crooked River Valley near the base of Maury Mountains. It was named for Colonel R. F. Maury, who took a prominent part in the Snake War of 1864, and was at the time in command of the First Oregon Volunteer Cavalry. The camp was in the southeast quarter of section 20, township 17 south, range 21 east, on the southeast side of Maury Creek and just west of Rimrock Creek. It had previously been occupied by a command under Major Enoch Steen, and the site had been selected for a supply depot. A company of the Oregon Cavalry under command of Captain John M. Drake made camp at the place in the evening of May 18, 1864, and Drake, in his journal, says he named it for Colonel Maury. It was on May 18 that Lieutenant Stephen Watson and two men were killed by Indians. They were buried by the side of a small knoll south of the camp and at the edge of the timber. The bodies were later moved to Camp Watson, a more important establishment to the northeast. The account given by Bancroft in History of Oregon, volume II, page 498, is wrong in some particulars, Camp Maury was occupied until July 21, 1864, when the depot was moved five miles west to a place called Camp Gibbs. This was done to get better forage. In January, 1943, Mrs. Florence Knox of Post wrote about Camp Maury and said that a number of stone walls were still standing, three of four feet high, apparently built to protect sleeping soldiers. The site of the camp is on the J. T. Stewart homestead. Camp McKINLEY, Multnomah County. The Spanish-American War broke out April 20-22, 1898, and no time was lost in mobilizing the Oregon National Guard. A camp was officially established April 29, 1898, on the racetrack grounds at Irvington Park, named Camp McKinley in honor of the President William McKinley and it was at this camp that the Second Oregon Infantry was mustered into the service of the United States. Camp McKinley was just east of what is now Northeast Seventh Avenue, between Northeast Brazee and Northeast Fremont streets. The locality no longer shows any traces of camp or racetrack. Between May 11 and May 16, 1898, the Second Oregon was moved to the Presidio of San Francisco, from which post it embarked for Manila on May 25, to be away from the United States for more than a year. Brigadier General Raymond F. Olson of the Oregon Military Department, on October 8, 1947, sent the compiler a copy of part of General Orders No. 2, dated April 29, 1898, establishing Camp McKinley, but added that no orders of disestablishment could be found and it was assumed that the camp officially ceased its life on May 19, 1898, when the last of the state and federal property was removed. The compiler recalls visiting the camp several times, and has no recollection of anything more than the most temporary sort of facilities.
CAMP MERIWETHER, Tillamook County. Camp Meriwether is the summer camp of the Boy Scouts, Portland area. It is on the ocean front ​
about two miles south of Cape Lookout and not far from Sand Lake. It was named for Meriwether Lewis in 1925 by G. H. Oberteuffer, scout executive of the Boy Scouts of America, Portland area.
CAMP NAMANU, Clackamas County. The Camp Fire Girls of Portland and vicinity have a summer camp a little northwest of Bull Run, on Sandy River just below the mouth of Bull Run River. The name of this place and its summer post office is Camp Namanu. Namanu is said to be an Indian word meaning beaver, and that animal was once plentiful in the locality. The compiler does not know from what Indian language namanu is taken. The Chinook jargon word for beaver is ee-na. Namanu may be a variation of the Chinook jargon word ne-nam-ooks, meaning land otter. Camp Namanu post office was established January 7, 1939, by change of name from Bullrun. Elaine S. Gorman was first postmaster.
CAMP POLK, Deschutes County. Camp Polk is about three miles northeast of Sisters on the west bank of Squaw Creek, and there is now little to show that it was once a military post. The camp was established in 1865 at the time of Indian uprisings in eastern Oregon. Captain Charles LaFollette was commanding officer of Company A of the First Oregon Volunteer Infantry and a resident of Polk County. His company was stationed at this camp and he named the place in honor of his home county, Some cabins were built and the troops spent the winter of 1865-66 at the camp and were mustered out in 1866. About 1870 Samuel M. W. Hindman settled near the camp and for a time ran the post office. Mrs. Nellie M. Miller, long a resident of Sisters, died in July, 1941, and left a substantial sum to be used in improving and maintaining the Camp Polk cemetery, also known as the Hindman cemetery. The locality of Camp Polk is shown on the USGS map of the Three Sisters quadrangle. A post office with the name Camp Polk was established in March, 1875, with Samuel M. W. Hindman postmaster. In July, 1888, the office was moved about three miles southwest to the community of Sisters and the name was changed to agree with the new locality.
CAMP RUSSELL, Marion County, Oregon. When the first Oregon Volunteer Infantry was organized in 1864-65, at least four companies appear to have been mustered in at a place called Camp Russell, but the Report of the Adjutant General, 1865-66, fails to locate the camp. However, the reminiscences of William M. Hilleary of F Company, on file at the Oregon Historical Society, say that the camp was on the Fair Grounds at Salem. Among other things, Hilleary says: "One wing of the old pavilion was fitted up for squad room, in which were our bunks. It was our sitting room,-parlor, bedroom, hall, all in one. Another wing of the pavilion was occupied by the kitchen and culinary department, which was dubbed 'Hotel de Russle' for it was here that we, with an eye on the main chance, 'rustled' for our grub." This camp was named in honor of Major-General David Allen Russell, who was killed at the battle of Opequan, Virginia, Sepember 19, 1864. Russell had served in Oregon and was a popular soldier and his death occurred about the time the camp was established. The order naming the camp is in the Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies, volume L. part II, page 1086.
CAMP SHERMAN, Jefferson County. This post office is on the Me. tolius River about two miles north of its source. It was named because of the fact that a number of families from Sherman County spent their summer vacations at this camp. ​
CAMP SPENCER, Josephine County. Camp Spencer was a place used in the Rogue River War of 1855-56, and is mentioned in Victor's Early Indian Wars of Oregon, page 366. It is described as being on the lower Applegate River. Mrs. Victor gives neither the exact location of the camp nor the reason for the name.
CAMP STUART, Jackson County. A list of military establishments in Oregon should include the name of Camp Stuart, although it is not mentioned in Heitman's Historical Register. In 1917, Princeton University Press published Mexican War Diary of George B. McClellan, edited by William Starr Myers. On page 14 is a note of an entry by McClellan on a page otherwise blank, of an event several years after the Mexican War. The note as printed is: "On the 18th June, 1851, at five in the afternoon died Jimmie Stuart, my best and oldest friend. He was mortally wounded the day before by an arrow, whilst gallantly leading a charge against a party of hostile Indians. He is buried at Camp Stuart – about twentyfive miles south of Rogue's River [Oregon?], near the main road, and not far from the base of Cishion (?) Mountains. His grave is between two oaks, on the left side of the road, going south, with J. S. cut in the bark of the largest of the oaks." Captain James Stuart was graduated from West Point in 1846 and served with distinction in the Mexican War, gaining two brevets. Stuart was wounded in an engagement probably near Rogue River a little upstream from Upper Table Rock. Walling in History of Southern Oregon, page 197, gives an account of the incident and says that Stuart was buried near the present town of Phoenix, close to the site of the Colver house, but mentions no military establishment. There is ad. ditional information in Bancroft's History of Oregon, volume II, page 227. The camp was used intermittently at least as late as 1853. The stream flowing northward through the valley at this point was named Stuart Creek in honor of James Stuart, but settlers later changed the name to Bear Creek, which cannot be considered an improvement. The compiler is of the opinion that McClellan wrote Ciskiou (?) in his note and not Gishion (?).
CAMP WARNER, Lake County. Camp Warner occupied two places in the Warner Valley, some distance apart. In 1866 troops from Vancouver made a reconnaissance into southeast Oregon, and, among other things, selected a site for Camp Warner on the west side of the Warner Valley. Soldiers were sent from Boise, Idaho, with orders to build the camp, but the command reached the east side of the Warner Valley and concluded that it would be impractical to cross the string of lakes and swamps. Accordingly, the camp was built a little east of the valley on the north part of Hart Mountain and named for Brevet Captain William Horace Warner, who was killed by Indians in September, 1849, probably in Surprise Valley, just over the line in California. For information about this event, see under WARNER VALLEY. The Camp Warner mentioned in this paragraph is now generally known as Old Camp Warner. The winter of 1866-67 was very severe and the troops at Old Camp Warner suffered great hardships. Major-General George Crook, then a lieutenant-colonel, took command at Boise in 1866, and in 1867 made an inspection of the Warner Valley. He disapproved of the camp and the locality and was provoked by the story that the troops could not cross the lakes. He caused a rock causeway to be built in a few days and relocated Camp Warner in the west part of the valley, at about the place originally selected by ​
wolume 1, potete county as ep Warner was east, at while Cume line is a Histomoved freson the troops from Vancouver. For additional information about Camp Warner, see History of Central Oregon, page 811, et seq. Therein it is stated that the troops were moved from the camp in October and November, 1873. Heitman's Historical Register lists Camp Warner but gives no details. There is also some information in Bancroft's History of Oregon, volume II, page 536. See also under STONE BRIDGE. In October, 1943, C. H. Langslet, county assessor at Lakeview, informed the compiler that the second location of Camp Warner was on Honey Creek in the southwest part of township 36 south, range 22 east, at what is now known as Fort Warner Ranch. The remains of the camp are a little to the northwest of the ranchhouse, which is in section 32.
CAMP WATSON, Wheeler County. All that is left of Camp Watson is on a little stream called Fort Creek about five miles west of Anatone. The place is shown on the USGS map of the Dayville quadrangle. Camp Watson was named in honor of Second Lieutenant Stephen Watson of the First Oregon Volunteer Cavalry who was killed in action with Snake Indians on the upper reaches of Crooked River May 18, 1864. According to the report of Captain H. C. Small of Company G of the Oregon Cavalry, he selected the site of Camp Watson October 1, 1864, and his command built huts for the winter. The name was applied by order of Brigadier-General Benjamin Alvord. It is apparent that there was a temporary Camp Watson a little earlier in the campaign four miles to the east. Late in 1866 the Oregon volunteers were recalled to Fort Vancouver and mustered out of service, but the camp was occupied by federal cavalry and infantry detachments for several more years. Local tradition says that a log stockade about fifteen feet high was the main defense, and there were several groups of log cabins and a blacksmith shop. In addition there was a building used for a stage station. A large meadow was used for a parade ground. In 1935 there were reported to be seven graves at Camp Watson, but it could not be determined if Watson's body was in any of them. A post office with the name Camp Watson was established to serve the locality on November 11, 1867, with Charles L. West first of four postmasters. This office was discontinued November 3, 1886, with papers to Caleb.
CAMP WHITE, Jackson County. George Ared White was born in Illinois July 18, 1881. When but a youth he became interested in military life and served in the Spanish-American War. He came to Oregon from the Rocky Mountain states in 1904 and joined the staff of the Oregonian. The compiler recalls many pleasant weeks spent with George White and Gene Howe in 1905 reporting the Lewis and Clark Fair for the Oregonian. In 1915 George White became adjutant general for Oregon and from that time on his rise in military rank was remarkable. He served with distinction in World War I. Successively he held more important positions and was major-general in command of the 41st Division when that organization was called into the federal service September 16, 1940. He served with that rank until his death November 23, 1941. He received many honors from both government and private agencies. Under the name Ared White he gained wide popularity as an author, Camp White, near Rogue River in southern Oregon, was north of Medford, and was named in honor of George A. White. It was a large installation for use in World War II. The camp was authorized in January, 1942, and the first concrete was poured March 11. The camp was officially dedicated September 15, 1942, with Mrs. White the guest of honor. ​
Camp WITHYCOMBE, Clackamas County. Camp Withycombe, which is just east of Clackamas station, is named for James Withycombe, governor of Oregon from 1915 to 1919. In February, 1944, Colonel Elmer V. Wooton, acting adjutant general of Oregon, wrote the compiler: "Camp Withycombe was established in 1909, under a lease arrangement with option to purchase. The United States Government was the lessee and the purchase option was exercised in 1910. Originally known as the Clackamas Rifle Range, it was redesignated Camp Withycombe during World War I and in 1934 was officially designated as Camp Withycombe. The original tract was added to several times, so that now the area embraced in the camp site totals 257 acres."
CAMP WRIGHT, Harney County. Camp Wright was used during the Indian troubles of the '60s. According to the Oregon Adjutant General's Report, 1865-66, it was established October 3, 1865. It was occupied by Captain L. L. Williams and H Company of the First Oregon Volunteer Infantry, and it was situated on Silvies River close to the east end of Wright Point near what was later Island Ranch. It was named for Brigadier-General George Wright who was drowned in the wreck of the Brother Jonathan. See under WRIGHT POINT. The camp was not many months in use and was not substantially fortified. See Bancroft's History of Oregon, volume II, page 514 and page 490, footnote. The reminiscences of William M. Hilleary on file at the Oregon Historical Society say that the soldiers protected themselves by building up sod walls with roofs of poles covered with earth.
CAMPBELL Falls, Douglas County. The Forest Service has adopted the name Campbell Falls for a drop in South Umpqua River, in section 13, township 29 south, range 1 west, just above the mouth of Boulder Creek. These falls were named to commemorate Robert G. Campbell, a former employe of the Forest Service who was killed in action in World War II, November 12, 1944.
CANARY, Lane County. This place received its unusual name because local residents could find none other that would satisfy both postal authorities and railroad officials. Many names were suggested but to no avail. The writer is informed that Canary has no local significance and it is not known who suggested it.
CANBY, Clackamas County. Canby was named for Major-General Edward R. S. Canby, commander of the Department of the Columbia, who was killed by Modoc Indians on April 11, 1873, at a peace parley not far from the California-Oregon line south of what is now Klamath Falls. For a short account of the Modoc War, see Scott's History of the Oregon Country, volume II, page 334. See also Jeff C. Riddle's The Indian History of the Modoc War, which gives detailed accounts of the war and subsequent happenings. Edward Richard Sprigg Canby was a veteran of the Seminole, Mexican and Civil wars. In 1874 Fort Canby, Washington, at the mouth of the Columbia River, was named for him. Stories to the effect that the community of Canby was once called Knighttown for Adam Knight, an early resident, could not be confirmed in June, 1943. Adam Knight, then still living, denied all knowledge of the matter. The general locality from Canby north to the Willamette River was called Baker Prairie.
CANEMAH, Clackamas County. Canemah was founded in 1845 by A. F. Hedges. During many years it was the loading and unloading point ​
for the portage around Willamette Falls. Leslie M. Scott says that the name is supposed to have been that of an Indian chief.
CANNERY MOUNTAIN, Lincoln County. Cannery Mountain, elevation 1065 feet, is on the south side of Siletz River about two miles southeast of the present site of Kernville. This mountain is about south of and across the river from the site of the former Kern fish cannery and it was named on that account. For information about the cannery, see under
KERNVILLE.
CANNIBAL MOUNTAIN, Lincoln County. Cannibal Mountain, elevation 1946 feet, in the Coast Range about five miles south of Tidewater, has one of those names that seems to defy efforts to find a reason for the application. The region is not noted for its cannibals, unless they be deer flies and mosquitos, and it seems hardly likely that anyone ever named the peak for such pests. The compiler has an old map with the name Cannonball Mountain for this peak, but in 1946, H. G. Hopkins, district ranger for the Forest Service at Waldport, tried to learn the history of the name of the mountain and could find no one in the locality that ever heard of Cannonball. The point was sometimes called Canniber Mountain, supposed to be an Indian name meaning saddle, but search so far has disclosed no such Indian word. Canniber was also said to be derived from the fact that oldtimers went to the place for canning berries, but this seems fanciful. Hopkins reports that stories that two well-known hunters went there to get venison to eat raw were denied as ridiculous by one of the hunters still surviving. Stories that a pioneer trapper, during a snowstorm ate his squaw rather than starve are of the guidebook type rather than for jury trial.
CANNON BEACH, Clatsop County. Lieutenant Neil M. Howison, U. S. N., arrived in the Columbia River July 1, 1846, in the schooner Shark for the purpose of making an investigation of part of the Oregon country for the government. For details of his visit see Carey's History of Oregon, page 451. For details of his report, see OHQ, volume XIV, page 59. The Shark was wrecked on attempting to leave the Columbia River on September 10, 1846, and part of her deck and a small iron cannon drifted ashore south of Tillamook Head, thus giving the name to Cannon Beach. The cannon is still there. For information about this disaster see OHQ, volume XIV, page 355. Cannon Beach is a well-known summer resort, and is of historic interest. In January, 1806, William Clark climbed over Tillamook Head and visited the locality. At the south end of Cannon Beach is Arch Cape, which blocks automobile travel on the beach itself. Hug Point, about two miles north of Arch Cape, formerly blocked beach traffic, but a narrow road has been cut around its face in the solid rock. Other important points are Humbug Point, Silver Point, and Chapman Point, which is at the north end and is a southern spur of Tillamook Head. Haystack Rock, 235 feet high, is one of the prominent sights on the beach itself. Elk Creek flows into the ocean at the north end of Cannon Beach. The community has been known by various names including Elk Creek and Ecola, but the Post Office Department in 1922 changed the office name from Ecola to Cannon Beach to agree with the natural feature and to avoid confusion with Eola, where mail was frequently missent. The cannon and the capstan of the Shark are standing a little south of Hug Point, above high water line. Construction of Oregon Coast Highway just above the beach has made unnecessary the dan ​gerous pass age around Hug Point. Cannon Beach is about eight miles long. Cannon Beach post office was established May 29, 1891, with James P. Austin postmaster. This office was on or near the Kissling property at Hug Point, not far from the spot where the old cannon stands and several miles south of the present Cannon Beach community. The office was closed November 2, 1901. The office called Ecola was established November 25, 1910, with Lester E. Bill postmaster. This office was at the place called Elk Creek, now called Cannon Beach community. The name of the office was changed to Cannon Beach on May 25, 1922, when Eugene Lamphere was postmaster.
CANOE ENCAMPMENT RAPIDS, Morrow County. These rapids are in the Columbia River between Castle Rock and Blalock Island. The encampment at the foot of the rapids was a popular one with the fur traders and trappers. The name appears in early journals, but when first so used cannot be determined. It has been suggested that possibly the name was originally applied by traders because of an encampment of Indians with canoes at that point, as it seems strange that the traders themselves would single out these rapids as being particularly associated with their canoes, which they had with them at all rapids.
CANYON CITY, Grant County. This historic community is the county seat of Grant County, and derives its name because of the fact that it is situated in a canyon about two miles south of the John Day River. This part of the state was the scene of gold discoveries in the fall of 1861 and for some time there was a great influx of miners. Canyon City post office was established in what was then Wasco County on April 23, 1864. Grant County was formed from part of Wasco County on October 14, 1864. Canyon City suffered from a disastrous fire on April 18, 1937, a large part of the community being destroyed.
CANYON ROAD, Multnomah and Washington counties. Canyon Road, at the head of Southwest Jefferson Street, Portland, was a highly important factor in the development of the city. Rival communities such as Linnton, Milton and Saint Helens were at a disadvantage because they did not have as good access to the rich farm lands of the Tualatin Valley. The road was named because it traversed the canyon of Tanner Creek. See under that heading. Canyon Road was first opened in the fall of 1849 (letter of Joseph Smih in the Oregonian, July 13, 1884). Citizens of Portland formed, for the improvement of the road, in 1850, the Portland and Valley Plank Road Company, which was chartered by the legislature and organized at Lafayette July 30, 1851, Subscription for funds opened March 10, 1851, at Portland, Hillsboro, Lafayette, Nesmiths Mills, Marysville (Corvallis), Albany and Salem. Grading began in 1851. Stephen Coffin took the contract for laying the planks. The first plank was laid September 27, 1851, amid ceremonies. In September, 1851, Thomas Stephens became superintendent. For further work, see advertisements in the Oregonian in 1851. The work soon lapsed for lack of funds (article by George H. Himes, ibid., August 14, 1902). The first plank was laid near the present Art Museum. The route was surveyed by Daniel H. Lownsdale. The road was badly damaged by rains in the winter of 185152, ibid., January 10, 1852. A statement of the work on the road appears, ibid., April 3, 1852. The sum of $14,593.83 was expended up to that time. On May 10, 1852, the third and fourth installments to stock subscriptions were called for. In the summer of 1852 a scandal, or rupture, occurred in ​the company, and new directors were elected, ibid., August 7, 1852. An earlier road, built by F. W. Pettygrove, passed through what is now Washington Park.
Canyonville, Douglas County. Canyonville is an historic community of Oregon, and is situated at the north end of Canyon Creek Canyon, where this defile opens into the valley of the South Umpqua River. It was in this canyon that the immigrants of 1846 had such great hardships on their way into the Willamette Valley. The canyon was known in pioneer days as Umpqua Canyon. For a graphic description of the difficulties experienced here by the pioneers of 1846 see Bancroft's History of Oregon, volume I, page 563. For information concerning the proposed location of a railroad in the canyon see Scott's History of the Oregon Country, volume IV, page 5. The railroad route finally selected ascended Cow Creek from Riddle and joined the old stage road not far from Glendale. The stage route for many years continued up Canyon Creek and today travelers over the Pacific Highway may see where there have been earlier routes through the canyon. The total descent from the pass at the head of Canyon Creek to Canyonville is nearly 1300 feet, most of which occurs in the south part of the canyon. Canyonville was for many years known as North Canyonville, the post office having been established with that name July 6, 1852, with John T. Boyle, postmaster. There was a locality farther south known as South Canyonville, but this was not a post office. The post office name was changed to Canvonville June 1, 1892. Canyon Creek is erronously supposed by many to be Cow Creek. The Pacific Highway does not follow the canyon of Cow Creek although it does traverse that stream through a wide valley east of Glendale. The pass at the head of Canyon Creek is about 2020 feet in elevation. Canyonville has an elevation of 747 feet. Those who have visited this part of the state will realize that Canyon Creek and Canyonville are appropriate names.
Cape Arago, Coos County. Cape Arago is the western point of a large headland just south of the mouth of Coos Bay. The northern point of this headland is Coos Head. Captain James Cook sighted it on March 12, 1778, and named it Cape Gregory for the saint of that day. Since 1850 this cape has been called Cape Arago, and is officially so known by the USBGN. Dominique Francois Jean Arago (1786-1853) was a great French physicist and geographer. He was the intimate of Alexander von Humboldt, and his friendship with Humboldt "lasted over forty years without a single cloud ever having troubled it." The name Cape Arago first appeared on the U.S. Coast Survey chart prepared by William P. Mc. Arthur in 1850, and issued the following year. It seems apparent that McArthur applied the name Arago as the result of the naming of Humboldt Bay, California, which took place about the same time. Humboldt Bay was named in 1850 during the visit of a company of miners styled the Laura Virginia company or association. A. J. Bledsoe, in Indian Wars of the Northwest, 1885, page 118, gives an account of the exploration of the Laura Virginia expedition in the ship Laura Virginia, and he says that Humboldt Bay was named at the solicitation of a member of the party who was an admirer of the great scientist. Elsewhere it is reported that the name was selected by Lieutenant Douglass Ottinger, captain of the Laura Virginia, but this does not agree with Bledsoe. McArthur visited Humboldt Bay and mapped it in 1850 and a few weeks later chart​ed Port Orford which he named Ewing Harbor for his Coast Survey schooner Ewing. He charted the vicinity of Cape Arago shortly after leaving Ewing Harbor. It seems obvious that the well-known friendship between Arago and Humboldt suggested the name for the cape. Family tradition says that McArthur was greatly interested in mathematics and physics and it seems certain that he was familiar with the association of Arago and Humboldt. The compiler is of the opinion that Cape Arago was named on account of this friendship. H. R. Wagner, in Cartography of the Northwest Coast of America, volume II, page 373, says that Cape Arago is the same as Cabo Toledo of Bodega's and Heceta's larger map of 1775,
CAPE BLANCO, Curry County. Cape Blanco is in north latitude 42° 50' 14" and is the most westward point in Oregon, but not, as some suppose, of continental United States. Blanco is a Spanish word meaning white. In 1602 Sebastian Vizcaino sailed from Acapulco at the head of an exploring expedition, and after one of his ships had turned back at Monterey, Vizcaino in his ship and Martin de Aguilar in a fragata, quitted Monterey on January 3, 1603, sailing northward. During a storm the two ships separated and Vizcaino sailed up the coast alone, reaching a point which he named Cape San Sebastian on January 20. He returned to Acapulco without meeting the fragata. In the meantime de Aguilar also sailed northward, and he records that on January 19 he reached the 43rd parallel, and found a point which he named Cape Blanco. North of the cape he reported a large river. Here he turned back. Most of the crew of the fragata, including de Aguilar, died on the way to Acapulco. H. R. Wagner in Cartography of the Northwest Coast of America, volume I, page 111, describes this voyage and calls attention to the fact that Cape Blanco was mentioned in the instructions, so that name was already in use before 1602. The recorded latitudes of this expedition are 100 great and there is nothing to show that the members ever reached the coast of Oregon or saw what is now Cape Blanco. The large HecetaBodega map prepared as a result of the 1775 expedition refers to this point as Cabo Diligensias. Bodega was off the cape September 27, 1775. See Wagner's Cartography, Volume II, page 376. On March 12, 1778, Captain James Cook writes of his discovery of Cape Arago, which he called Cape Gregory, and stated that he thought he observed the Cape Blanco of de Aguilar in proximity. He was too far away to see the mouth of Coos Bay. On April 24, 1792, Captain George Vancouver sighted what we now know as Cape Blanco, and named it Cape Orford in honor of George, earl of Orford, his "much respected friend." Vancouver determined its latitude as 42° 52", very nearly its true position. There was some speculation on Vancouver's ship as to whether or not it was the Cape Blanco of de Aguilar, but the position and its dark color "did not seem to intitle it to the appellation of cape Blanco." Vancouver brings up the matter again in his Voyage of Discovery in the latter part of the entry for April 25. He passed and identified Cape Gregory (now Cape Arago) of Captain Cook, and made a reasonably accurate determination of its latitude, though he noted the difference between his figures and Cook's. There was no other important point and he said: "This induced me to consider the above point as the cape Gregory of Captain Cook, with a probability of its being also the cape Blanco of D'Aguilar, if land hereabouts the latter ever saw." Vancouver finished his observa ​tions for the day by expressing a doubt that Cook saw Cape Blanco or any other cape south of Cape Gregory on March 12, 1778, and stated that it was fair to presume that what Cook saw was an inland mountain. Notwithstanding all these facts the name Cape Blanco has persisted for the most western cape of Oregon, even though it may not have originally been applied to it, and Vancouver's name Cape Orford has fallen into disuse and has been decided against by the USBGN. Part of the name is still in use in Port Orford, which is just south of the cape. Cape Alava, Clallam County, Washington, is the most westward point in continental United States, with a longitude of 124° 44'. It is in approximate latitude 48° 10'. It is more than 10 of longitude further west than Cape Blanco. Authorities are not unanimous as to the color of Cape Blanco, but George Davidson, whose opinion carries great weight, says in the Coast Pilot for 1869 that the rocks were of a dull white appearance but bright when the sun shone on them. However, this is probably more or less true of other capes in the neighborhood. For illustrated story about Cape Blanco and the lighthouse, by Alfred Powers, see the Oregonian, Sunday, September 15, 1915.
CAPE FALCON, Tillamook County. Cape Falcon is the next cape south of Arch Cape, and has been known in the past as False Tillamook Head, which lies further north. On August 18, 1775, Captain Bruno Heceta, while cruising along the north Pacific Coast discovered a cape in latitude 45° 43' north and named it Cape Falcon. While this is not far from the correct latitude of what we now know as Cape Falcon, 45° 46', the records of Heceta are so meager as to make it impossible exactly to identify his discovery. Cape Falcon as we now know it derived its name from Heceta, irrespective of what point he originally discovered. The present application of the name was made by George Davidson of the U. S. Coast Survey in 1853, as being preferable to a name with the "false" in it. Heceta speaks of Cape Falcon, but Fray Benito de la Sierra, one of his chaplains, uses the expression "a range of high hills, to which we gave the name Sierra de Montefalcon." See California Historical Society Quarterly, volume IX, page 235. The day of Santa Clara de Montefalco is August 18, and this name was obviously given in her honor. Cape Falcon has been the cause of considerable misunderstanding among students of Oregon history. Greenhow, in his History of Oregon and California, appears to have started the trouble by confusing Cape Falcon, or as it was sometimes known, False Tillamook Head, with Clarks Point of View. This he does in two places, once in chapter IV and another time in appendix E. This error has been perpetuated by both great authorities on the Lewis and Clark expedition, Coues and Thwaites. As a matter of fact Clarks Point of View was on Tillamook Head, as is clearly shown by Clark's description of the view he had from the point and also by two maps in Original Journals of the Lewis and Clark Expedition, atlas volume. Davidson perceived this error. See Coast Pilot for 1869. However, Davidson was of the opinion that the Cape Grenville of Meares was the same as Cape Falcon, but this seems improbable to the writer. At the time of his discovery of Cape Falcon, Heceta also named La Mesa or The Table, putting it some 15 minutes of latitude further south than the cape, with no indication as to whether it was an inland mountain or not. It seems to the compiler that La Mesa must have been what is now Cape Meares, or some flat-topped mountain inland. It is improbable that the name La ​
Mesa had anything to do with Neahkahnie Mountain. The latitude given for La Mesa is much too far south, and the summit of Neahkahnie Mountain is not prominent and flat as seen from the sea. There are several more imposing and higher points in the immediate vicinity.
CAPE FERRELO, Curry County. Bartolome Ferrelo (Ferrer) was a pilot in the expedition of Juan Rodriguez Cabrillo, a Portuguese, who sailed from Mexico in June, 1542, for the purpose of exploring the coast of Cal. ifornia, When near the 34th parallel of north latitude Cabrillo sank under the fatigue of the voyage and turned the command over to Ferrelo. The latter discovered a cape on the 41st parallel which he called Cabo de Fortunas, and on March 1, 1543, found himself to be as far north as the 44th parallel, but on the following day bad weather drove him south. It is now not easy to determine how far north Ferrelo came, nor what he actually discovered. H. R. Wagner in Cartography of the Northwest Coast of America, volume II, page 373, says that Cabo de Fortunas was probably the modern Point Arena, and apparently Ferrelo saw no more land north of that. His latitudes were considerably in error. There is nothing to connect the Cape Ferrelo with Bartolome Ferrelo the pilot, though it was named in his honor by George Davidson of the U.S. Coast Survey, probably in 1869. Cape Ferrelo is but a short distance from the Oregon-California boundary line. It is the first prominent headland north of St. George Reef, and while not projecting seaward to any considerable extent, it is nevertheless noticeable on account of its bold rugged face.
CAPE FOULWEATHER, Lincoln County, Cape Foulweather was discovered and named by Captain James Cook, the English explorer, on March 7, 1778. This was the first geographic feature that Captain Cook named in his voyage to the north Pacific Ocean. On the day of his discovery the weather was particularly inclement. The Coast Pilot for 1869 gives a detailed account of this cape and incidents surrounding its discovery, compiled by George Davidson. Cape KIWANDA, Tillamook County. This cape was once known as Sand Cape, but Kiwanda is the name in general use and the one adopted by the USBGN. Cape Kiwanda is a low, yellow, rocky point, much broken and eroded, projecting about one half mile from the general trend of the coast. Behind the cape are bright sand dunes, and it is probable that these rather than sand on the cape itself suggested the name Sand Cape. There is some uncertainty about the origin of the name Kiwanda, and it is said to mean "wind mountain." However, John W. Meldrum of Oregon City, former surveyor general of Oregon, said that Kiwanda was the name of a Nestucca Indian chief and local celebrity. This origin of the name seems much more probable, as the name Wind Mountain is not applicable to the cape.
CAPE LOOKOUT, Tillamook County. Cape Lookout is one of the most prominent on the Oregon coast. It projects into the ocean one and onehalf miles and has a narrow rocky promontory over 400 feet high on its seaward end. East of the cape the mountains rise to an elevation of over 2000 feet. Cape Lookout bears its present name in error which will doubtless never be corrected. The name was originally applied by John Meares to what is now known as Cape Meares, which he described fully and accurately, and his description was subsequently corroborated by Vancouver. The name was probably changed to the new position on the ​
, Coast Survey charts of 1850 and 1853. Cape Lookout is about ten miles south of Cape Meares and is much more prominent, which is doubtless the reason for the change. Having once become attached to the new cape it was deemed inadvisable to attempt to restore the name to the old location and as a result George Davidson applied Meares' name to the feature that Meares called Cape Lookout. For further information on this point, see the entry for CAPE MEARES and also refer to United States Coast Pilot for 1869.
CAPE MEARES, Tillamook County. Cape Meares is just south of Tillamook Bay, and bears the name of the most interesting of all the early explorers of the north Pacific Coast. Meares is well described in the following words by Professor Edmond S. Meany in his History of the State of Washington, page 25: "John Meares, a retired lieutenant of the British Navy, was the most unconventional and interesting personality of all those figuring in these early marine annals. He sailed under double colors, he succeeded as fur hunter and geographer, he was the pioneer of two great industries, he sought to plant a colony of Chinese men with Kanaka wives, he wrote a book, he precipitated a quarrel between England and Spain which came near embroiling also the new republic of the United States in a serious war. There was nothing dull about John Meares. In 1786, he sailed from Bengal with two vessels, the Nootka and Sea-otter, names redolent of furs and adventure. Little is known of this voyage except that it was confined to the shores of Alaska. In 1787 English merchants in India fitted out two ships, the Felice Adventurer and the Iphigenia Nubiana, and placed them in command of John Meares and William Douglas. To avoid excessive port charges in China and to evade licenses from the South Sea and East Indian monopolies, a Portuguese partner was taken in, who procured from the governor at Macao, Portuguese flags, papers and captains. In case of need the real masters would appear as clerks or super-cargoes. While little use was made of this scheme, the trick of double colors is condemned as a cheat, closely akin to piracy. In May, 1788, Meares in the Felice arrived at Nootka, and for two pistols bought some land from Chief Maquina. He at once erected a little fort, and began an important enterprise. He had brought the framework of a schooner. His ship's company included fifty men, crew and artisans, part of each group being Chinamen. This little schooner, the North West America, was the first vessel built in this part of the world and this also was the first introduction of Chinese labor on the Pacific Coast." While Meares' organization was engaged in these activities, he himself set sail on an exploring expedition along the coast. He passed the mouth of the Columbia River on July 6, 1788, but he failed to identify it as a river. By nightfall of that same day he had discovered and named three important features, the first of which he referred to as Cape Grenville, and the next Quicksand Bay, the third feature he christened Cape Lookout, and the volume containing the story of his travels has a very fine plate showing this cape together with the remarkable rocks a little to the southwest. Having failed to discover the new river he was seeking, he returned to Nootka. For further information about the history of Nootka and the controversy between England and Spain over Mearesenterprise, see Meany's History. It is not easy at this time to identify Cape Grenville. George Davidson supposes it to be Cape Falcon. Quicksand Bay seems to be what is now known as Tillamook Bay. Meares' descrip ​tion and picture of Cape Lookout, beyond all doubt, refer to what we now call Cape Meares, and the rocks that Meares christened Three Brothers are now known as Three Arch Rocks and form a bird reservation that is frequently written about. George Davidson applied the name of Cape Meares to the feature herein described in 1857. Davidson was for many years connected with the United States Coast Survey and is considered the authority on the early explorations of the Pacific Coast. It appears that through some misunderstanding the Coast Survey adopted the name Cape Lookout on its charts of 1850 and 1853 for a point about ten miles south of Meares' original location. The name of Cape Lookout having become so well established in its new position and attaching to a point quite striking in appearance, it was apparently thought by Davidson best to leave the name where it was and honor Meares by applying his own name to the feature that he discovered. Professor Meany's remarks about Meares being the pioneer of two great industries refer to shipbuilding and timber exporting. When the Felice started for China she carried with her a deck load of spars, the first to be shipped from the Pacific Northwest. The spars were lost in rough weather, but this does not rob Meares of the glory of starting our lumber industry.
CAPE PERPETUA, Lincoln County, Cape Perpetua, which is in the extreme southwest corner of the county, is one of the historic geographical features of Oregon. It was discovered on March 7, 1778, by Captain James Cook, the famous English explorer, and it has been frequently asserted that he named the cape because the bad weather seemed to hold him perpetually in sight of it. It is apparent from a careful reading of his journals that this was not the case, but that he named the headland for St. Perpetua, who was murdered in Carthage on March 7, 203, for it was on St. Perpetua's Day that he made his discovery. A pious gentleman informs the writer that Perpetua the Martyr was a noble lady of Carthage, and in the face of her father's pleadings and tears, professed the faith and was thrown to the beasts and beheaded. Cape RIDGE, Lane and Lincoln counties. Cape Ridge gets its name because its western end forms Cape Perpetua. It lies between Yachats River on the north and Cummins Creek on the south, and Cape Creek, a short stream in between the two, bisects it unequally, with the larger part to the north, this terminating in the cape. Cape Ridge rises rapidly from the cape, and about a mile and a half from the ocean, it has an elevation of 1400 feet, and about three miles from the ocean there is a well defined summit 1947 feet high. This ridge together with others extending from the ocean finally blends itself into the Coast Range at higher elevations. For geography of this feature see the USGS map of Waldport quadrangle.
CAPE SEBASTIAN, Curry County. Cape Sebastian gets its name from the fact that on January 20, 1603, Sebastian Vizcaino on an exploring expedition north from Mexico sighted a high white bluff near what he determined to be the 42nd parallel. He named it in honor of the saint of that day, San Sebastian. This point marked the northern limit of his vovage, but his recorded latitudes are much too high. What cape he saw and named it is not now possible to determine with accuracy, but the name Cape Sebastian is fixed on a cape in north latitude 42° 19' 40". The name was first applied to this feature by George Davidson in the U, S. Coast Survey Coast Pilot for 1869, page 112. For information about Viz . ​caino's voyage, see under CAPE BLANCO. Cape Sebastian is prominent from north or south, and rises abruptly from the sea to a height of about 700 feet. The style Cape San Sebastian is wrong for this feature and is not in accord with the name given by Davidson Capes. The first exploration of the Oregon country by white people was by the sea, and on account of presumed ease of identification, capes and promontories were sought after and named by the early navigators. Cape Blanco was the first geographical feature of the state to be named by a white man, although it is not at all certain what feature was originally so identified. For a period of nearly 200 years explorers carried on the work of naming the headlands of Oregon before the interior was touched upon. The history of the naming of the Oregon capes is therefore worthy of study, particularly in view of the fact that much uncertainty exists as to what some of the early navigators saw and named on their charts. In order that the matter may be understood, it is necessary to have a table of latitudes, shown below. This table gives the positions north of the equator of the important capes of the state, such positions being taken from the publications of the U. S. Coast and Geodetic Survey, except for that marked (a) which is scaled from reliable maps, and is approximate. The positions marked (lt) are for the lighthouses on the capes, and all others are for some important triangulation point on the cape, though not necessarily in the exact center, or on its most westward point. Cape North Latitude Point Adams.. 460 38" Tillamook Head ............ .45 Arch Cape ................ 10 Cape Falcon ................ (a) Neahkahnie Mountain ................... Cape Meares ...... .................. (lt) Cape Lookout. Cape Kiwanda. ............ Cascade Head ............ Cape Foulweather Yaquina Head .............. Cape Perpetua ............ Heceta Head Cape Arago ...... ................ Cape Arago ............. Coquille Point .................... (USG 52 Cape Blanco ........... ............. 14 Cape Sebastian .......... 40 Crook Point 07 Cape Ferrelo Cape Blanco is the most westward point in Oregon and its lighthouse is in west longitude 124° 33' 45". The most westward triangulation station on the cape is in longitude 124° 33' 50,"712 and is close to the edge of the cliff of the middle point. For detailed information on the above points see USC&GS Special Publication 175 and supplemental data. The table of latitudes given above will be of use in considering the discoveries on the Oregon coast, and will also indicate why it is impos........... 12 ......... .............. 仍历历4444仍仍仍归化 ​. 10 15 06 08 ​
ter of fog and lowa ndio are not unlike Xplorer recorded sible now to determine exactly what features each explorer recorded since in some instances the headlands are not unlike and are near together. The matter of fog and low lying clouds must also be taken into account. For instance it seems incredible that Heceta could so accurately describe the mouth of the Columbia River, then miss Tillamook Head completely and hit upon Cape Falcon.
CAPTAIN Cook POINT, Lincoln and Lane counties. Captain Cook Point is the first prominent point south of Cape Perpetua, and Captain Cook Chasm is a well-known landmark at the end of the point. The Oregon Coast Highway crosses this chasm on a concrete viaduct. These features bear the name of Captain James Cook, R. N., one of the greatest explorers of all time. He sailed along this part of the Oregon coast in 1778, and on March 7 of that year discovered and named Cape Perpetua, just north of Captain Cook Point. James Cook was born in 1728 in Yorkshire, and joining the Royal Navy in 1755, he soon began to demonstrate his talents as a navigator. Before 1776 he had made two very important voyages and, above all, had made remarkable advance in the prevention of scurvy. He sailed from England in 1776 on his third and last voyage, during which he sighted the Oregon coast. After important discoveries in Alaska, he visited the Hawaiian Islands, where he met death at the hands of natives on February 14, 1779. Distinguished honors were paid to him by many countries. The compiler was unable to find that any geographic features had been named for him in continental United States and in 1931 recommended to the USBGN that the name Captain Cook Point be applied to the Oregon promontory. The board adopted the name in October of that year.
CARBERRY CREEK, Jackson County. This stream is formed by Steve and Sturgis forks, and flows into Applegate River. It was for a time also known as Steamboat Creek, but it is now universally known as Carberry Creek, in memory of an early resident of that section. It was called Carberry Creek in pioneer mining days, and that name seems to have antedated the form Steamboat Creek. See OHQ, volume XXIII, page 154.
CARCUS CREEK, Columbia County. Carcus Creek, west of Apiary, flows north into Clatskanie River. In 1941 Sinclair Wilson of Portland, who knows much of the early history of the county, told the compiler that many years ago this stream was called Carcass Creek because a local resident found a dead horse on its banks. However, the formal style of spelling soon gave way to the form now universally used throughout the county. Efforts to adopt the original spelling have been unavailing, and the name Carcus Creek seems to be here to stay. Carico, Columbia County. Carico was a post office in the woods about six miles west of Deer Island, but the place did not develop into a community: The office was established December 4, 1889, with Mrs. Lydia Pinckney first postmaster. Her husband, Nelson Pinckney, became postmaster on March 25, 1904, and the office was closed to Deer Island on May 15, 1913. In June, 1947, Mrs. Nellie C. Buss of Saint Helens, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Pinckney, told the compiler that the office was named for one John Carico who had squatted on a claim in the locality prior to the arrival of the Pinckneys. John Carico moved away many years ago and the compiler knows nothing of his history.
CARLL, Douglas County, Carll was a post office on the upper reaches of Cow Creek, named for a local family. This office served the area later ​
served by Binger and by Anchor. The office was established October 22, 1883, with George McCormick first of five postmasters. Carll office was closed July 16, 1894, and it seems probable on that date the name was changed to Binger, although the official record is not exactly precise on this point. As with many other offices of this type, it was doubtless moved from time to time.
CARLTON, Yamhill County. A. E. Bones, postmaster at Carlton, wrote in October, 1925, that the place was named for John Carl, Sr., and that it was done at the request of R. R. Thompson of Portland at the time the west side railroad established a station there about 1874. Carl was an early settler in the neighborhood and Thompson owned a farm there. It has been stated elsewhere that the town was named for Wilson Carl, an ex-county commissioner. Possibly the two were members of the same family. Carlton post office was established July 21, 1874, with F. J. Fryer first postmaster.
CARNAHAN, Clatsop County. This community is on Clatsop Plains and was named for Hiram Carnahan, a pioneer of 1846. He was born in Tennessee in 1820. After arriving in Oregon he visited the California mines, but returned and settled in Clatsop County about 1849. He married Mary E. Morrison. For information about the Carnahan family, see editorial page of Oregon Journal, June 30, 1928. Hiram Carnahan died in January, 1896.
CARNATION, Washington County. This post office just south of Forest Grove was established May 20, 1905, with Clarence L. Bump first postmaster. It was so named because the Carnation Milk Products Company formerly had a condensery nearby, and Bump's store where the post office was situated was the Carnation store. This post office was operated with the name South Forest Grove from April, 1906, until November, 1914, when the old name Carnation was restored.
CARPENTERVILLE, Curry County. Carpenterville is on the Oregon Coast Highway about sixteen miles north of Brookings. In 1921 D. W. Carpenter and his family settled at this locality and among other things operated a small mill for fence lumber. Carpenter later moved to California and then to Bandon, but his sons continued to run the mill. He returned to the place about the time the highway was built and started a store and tourist cabins. In April, 1932 a post office was established and named for the family. Carpet Hill CREEK, Lane County. A few miles below Westfir, Carpet Hill Creek flows into Middle Fork Willamette River from the north. Jess McAbee, a pioneer resident of Lowell, is authority for the story of this name. The old Middle Fork road crossed the toe of a hill near the creek, and a large, smooth, sloping rock caused the oxen to slip and lose their footing. One outfit overcame the difficulty by laying a large carpet over the rock, and as a result the creek soon had its present name.
CARSON, Baker County. The postmaster of Carson in 1925 wrote that this community was apparently named for Tom Corson who settled about 1870 on a small stream flowing into Pine Creek. Neighbors pronounced his name Carson and applied it to the stream in question and subsequently to a small sawmill which was called the Carson Mill because it was situated on the creek. When the post office was established July 26, 1893, the name was applied to it as well. The office was discontinued in April, 1952. The area will be served by rural route out of Halfway.
​Carter, Lane County. This station on the Cascade line of the Southern Pacific Company was named for Joe Carter, an old settler of the neighborhood.
Carter, Malheur County. Carter post office was one of those establishments that did not last long. It appears on the Malheur County list as of July 15, 1898, and was discontinued November 2, 1901, with papers to Rockville. William C. Carlton was the only postmaster. The post office was named for an early settler, one Carter, whose initials are not available to the compiler. Carter post office was on Carter Creek eighteen or twenty miles eastward of the place known as Watson and something over twenty miles north of Sheaville. Carter Creek was also named for the pioneer settler. His home was near the junction of Carter Creek and Sucker Creek. CarTER BRANCH, Linn County. This stream flows into Beaver Creek about seven miles northeast of Lebanon. It was named for a family of early settlers nearby.
Carter Lake, Douglas County. This is a long, narrow lake in the extreme northwest corner of Douglas County about one-half mile from the Pacific Ocean. It was named for an early settler who lived on its shore.
Cartney, Linn County. This is a station on the Oregon Electric Railway north of Harrisburg. It is apparently named for J. M. McCartney, an early settler in the neighborhood, as the station is on part of his land. The compiler does not know why his full name was not used.
Cartwright, Lane County. D. B. Cartwright was born in Syracuse, New York, in 1814 and came to Oregon in 1853. He settled in the upper reaches of Siuslaw River and established a hotel and stage station which he called Mountain House. The building was still standing in 1945 about eight miles west of Cottage Grove, and a picture of it was published in the Sunday Journal, December 9, 1945. Cartwright died in 1875. William Russell, a native of Ohio, came to Oregon in 1848, and in 1866 married Miss N. C. Cartwright. He took over the activities of the Mountain House and was instrumental in having a post office established with the name of his father-in-law. This occurred on August 7, 1871, and the office continued under Russell's direction until September 18, 1890. For biographies of Cartwright and Russell see Illustrated History of Lane County, page 482; for picture of the Mountain House, ibid., page 232. In May, 1946, P. M. Morse, Lane County Engineer, informed the compiler that the Mountain House is situated on the east side of the Territorial road in the extreme west part of section 30, township 20 south, range 4 west.
Carus, Clackamas County. Carus is a locality on the Cascade Highway about seven miles south of Oregon City and a little to the southwest of Beaver Creek. Carus post office was established June 7, 1887, with David Hunter first postmaster, and was discontinued July 27, 1907. The origin of this name has long been a mystery, and some information dug up early in 1946 merely adds to the confusion. The compiler has been informed by two reliable persons that it was planned to name the place Carns, and that is the way the name was sent to the postal authorities at Washington. It was not unusual to misread an "n" for a "u" and the name was innocently converted into Carus when the office was established. It may have been intended to name the office for a Carns in another state. or what is more probable, for a family named Carns.
​CARVER, Clackamas County. Carver is a post office near Baker Bridge on Clackamas River. It is at the site of the former office of Stone, which was established a number of years ago, and was later discontinued. The old office was called Stone because of the number of large boulders in the locality. About 1915 Stephen S. Carver promoted an interurban line from Portland into this part of Clackamas County, and a townsite at Stone was surveyed and platted with his name, Carver. The post office of Carver was established about 1924. S. S. Carver was born in Iowa in 1866 and died at Carver November 25, 1933. For obituary, see the Oregon Journal, November 27, 1933.
Carver GLACIER, Deschutes County. Jonathan Carver was the first person known to have used the name Oregon, which he did in a book published 1778. The only place in Oregon where his name has been perpetuated is in Carver Glacier, which is on the north slope of the South Sister and is one of the sources of Squaw Creek. It was named by Professor Edwin T. Hodge of the University of Oregon in 1924. Carver was born at Weymouth, Massachusetts, April 3, 1710. He served in the French and Indian wars, and later became an adventurous traveler. He had difficulties in getting the story of his travels published, and soured and discontented, he went to England where he was in a measure successful. He died in want in London in 1780. For his travels Carver outfitted at Mackinac and went to Green Bay, on Lake Michigan, and from there, by portage and river, to the Mississippi at Prairie du Chien, and then up the Mississippi to the Saint Peter, to spend the winter of 1766-67. He returned by way of Lake Superior, in 1767. Carver's Travels have been criticised as to their originality, and questions of plagiarism have been discussed by historical and literary authorities for many years. He is alleged to have plagiarized the writings of Charlevoix, Lahontan and James Adair, and the parallels have been freely quoted. For narrative of Carver's travels and discussion of this "plagiarism," see The American Historical Review, volume XI, pages 287–302, by Edward Gaylord Bourne. See also Bibliography of Carver's Travels, 1910, and Additional Data, 1913, by John Thomas Lee, published by the Wisconsin Historical Society. For details of Carver's family and of his birth, see The Wisconsin Magazine of History, volume III, No. 3, page 229, by William Browning. While Jonathan Carver originated the form of the name Oregon, it now seems probable that he did not originate the name itself. That was apparently done by Major Robert Rogers, an English army officer who was commandant at the frontier military post at Mackinac, Michigan, during the time of Carver's journey into the upper valley of the Mississippi. For particulars of this matter see the OHQ, volume XXII, No. 2, for June, 1921, containing an article by T. C. Elliott. See under the heading Oregon. Rogers used the form Ourigan.
Cascade Head, Tillamook County. Cascade Head is a jagged, wooded cape with a cliff on the seaward side, about three miles long and in places over 100 feet high. It was named because of the fact that its face is cut deep by gorges through which the waters of three creeks are discharged from cascades 60 to 80 feet high. The name was applied to it by George Davidson of the U. S. Coast Survey in the Coast Pilot for 1869.
Cascade Locks, Hood River County. The federal government adopted a plan for permanent improvements at the Cascades of the Columbia in 1875, and began work in 1878. For the history of the construction of ​
the Cascade locks see the Oregonian, January 1, 1895, page 8. The locks were completed November 5, 1896. The community was named for the locks. Scott's History of the Oregon Country, volume III, page 190, gives a detailed history of the various aids to transportation developed at this point. The locks were submerged early in 1938 as a result of the construction of Bonneville Dam, but the town was not disturbed.
CASCADE RANGE. The Cascade Range is the great mountain backbone of Oregon and Washington, and divides both states into separate climatic and geographic provinces. Probably the first attempt at a name for the range was by the Spaniard, Manuel Quimper, 1790, who roughly mapped it as Sierras Nevadas de S. Antonio. In 1792 George Vancouver, the English explorer, gave names to a number of the most prominent peaks, but referred to the range as "snowy range," "ridge of snowy mountains," or "range of rugged mountains." Lewis and Clark, 1805-1806, mention the named peaks and frequently refer in general terms to the range of mountains. Lewis wrote: "The range of western mountains are covered with snow," and Clark wrote: "Western mountains covered with snow." (Thwaites' Original Journals of the Lewis and Clark Expedition, volume IV, pages 313 and 305-306.) "Western Mountains" is the nearest to a name for the range adopted by Lewis and Clark. John Work, of the Hudson's Bay Company, wrote in December, 1824: "A ridge of high mountains covered with snow." (Washington Historical Quarterly, vol. ume III, pages 213, 215.) David Douglas, the botanist, in writing his journal had great need of a name for these mountains and he seems to have been the first one to use the name "Cascade." He refers again and again to the "Cascade Mountains" or "Cascade Range of Mountains." (Journal Kept by David Douglas, 1823-1827, pages 221-222, 252, 257, 342.) Douglas does not claim to have originated the name for the range, and earlier use of it may yet come to light. William A. Slacum's report, 1836-1837, says the mountains called "Klannet range, from the Indians of that name." (OHQ, volume XIII, page 201.) Hall J. Kelley, early enthusiast of the Oregon country, who is sometimes referred to as "The Boston School. master," sought in a memoir (1839), to change the names of the great peaks by calling them after former presidents of the United States and to christen the range "Presidents range." The Wilkes Expedition, 1841, charted the mountains as Cascade Range. Kelley's memoir is in 25th Congress, 3rd Session, House Report 101, Supplemental Report, dated February 16, 1839, page 47. The original report, dated January 4, 1839, is generally referred to as the Cushing report and the supplement of February 16, 1839, is an addition. Kelley's memoir is listed as Appendix 0, and is dated Boston, January 31, 1839. It was addressed to the Committee on Foreign Affairs of which Caleb Cushing of Massachusetts was chairman. On pages 53-54 Kelley says: "The eastern section of the district referred to is bordered by a mountain range, running nearly parallel to the spine of the Rocky Mountains and to the coast, and which, from the number of its elevated peaks, I am inclined to call the Presidents' range." In a footnote Kelley adds: "These isolated and remarkable cones, which are now called among the hunters of the Hudson's Bay Company by other names, I have christened after our ex-Presidents, viz: on pag bordered Mountalam inclined an 1. Washington, latitude 46 degrees, 15 minutes (Saint Helens or Adams]; ​
2. Adams, latitude 45 degrees, 10 minutes [Hood]; 3. Jefferson, latitude 44 degrees, 30 minutes (Jefferson); 4. Madison, 43 degrees, 50 minutes [Three Sisters]; 5. Monroe, 43 degrees, 20 minutes (Diamond); 6. John Quincy Adams, 42 degrees, 10 minutes [McLoughlin); 7. Jackson, 41 degrees, 40 minutes [Shasta].". Farnham's Travels in the Great Western Prairies was published in 1843. Page 96 (New York edition) describes the Presidents Range and its several peaks. Farnham mentions ten peaks south of the 49th parallel (Canadian boundary). "Five of these latter have received names from British navigators and traders. The other five have received from an American traveler, Mr. Kelley, the names of deceased Presidents of the Republic. Mr. Kelly, I believe, was the first individual who suggested a name for the whole range. For convenience in description I have adopted it. And although it is a matter in which no one can find reasons for being very much interested, yet if there is any propriety in adopting Mr. Kelley's name for the whole chain, there might seem to be as much in following his suggestion that all the principal peaks should bear the names of those distinguished men ... I have adopted this course." Farnham's names and positions, together with modern names, are: Mount Tyler, 49 degrees Mount Madison [Three Sis[Baker] ters] Mount Harrison (Rainier] Mount Monroe, 43 degrees 20 Mount Van Buren [Olympus] minutes [Diamond] Mount Adams, 45 degrees Mount Quincy Adams, 42 de[Adams] grees, 10 minutes [McMount Washington [Hood] Loughlin] Mount Jefferson, 411/2 degrees Mount Jackson, 41 degrees, 10 (Jefferson] minutes (Shasta] Some of Farnham's positions, as well as those of Kelley, are widely erroneous, yet it is surprising that they are as good as they are. Farnham's position for Mount Jefferson is obviously a typographical error for 441% degrees, otherwise it does not fit the sequence. The latitudes of both authors are generally too low. These presidential names were started by Kelley, and were confused by later writers who adopted his names but not his locations. In this way, difference of names appears as to Mount Adams, Mount Saint Helens, Mount Hood and other peaks. The original names remain with Mounts Hood, Saint Helens, Rainier, Baker and Jefferson; otherwise with Adams, Three 'Sisters, McLoughlin and Shasta. John Work, in his journal (OHQ, volume X, pages 308-09, by T. C. Elliott), calls Mount Adams Mount Saint Helen, Mount Saint Helens Mount Rainier, and Mount Rainier Mount Baker. The name Cascades was first that of the narrows of the Columbia River, which yet bears the title. This name for the Columbia River narrows is used commonly by writers as far back as the Astor expedition. In the Cushing supplemental report, referred to above as containing the Kelley memoir, there is also a memoir of Nathaniel J. Wyeth, dated February 4, 1839, which uses the name Cascade mountains. In Greenhow's History of Oregon and California, the name Far-West mountains is suggested. See also Bancroft's History of Oregon, volume s to Mohe original njefferson; work, in his journis ​
idevada Ofers essentinantsson and in I, page 164, note. As far as the writer knows, but one tribe of Indians had a name for the Cascade Range as such. The Klamath Indians called it the Yamakiasham Yaina, literally "mountains of the northern people." Cascade Range is the official form of name adopted by the USBGN and the feature to which it applies extends from Canada to the gap south of Lassen Peak in California. The Cascade Range is primarily volcanic in character and particularly in Oregon and in northern California its crest is made up of the remnants of a series of giant volcanoes. The Cascade Range differs essentially in construction and in origin from the Sierra Nevada of California and there is no connection between the . two. The highest point in the Cascade Range in Oregon is Mount Hood, 11,245 feet, and the lowest pass is the gorge of the Columbia River. The important routes of travel through the Cascade Range in Oregon include the Columbia River Highway at water level, and the Mount Hood Loop Highway, which in certain sections follows closely the Barlow Road, and which has a maximum elevation of 4673 feet where it goes through Bennett Pass on a spur east from the main range. The elevation of the roadway at Barlow Pass is 4157 feet. The Wapinitia Highway goes through Wapinitia Pass at an elevation of 3949 feet, but this highway also crosses a higher spur east of the main divide, at Blue Box Pass, elevation 4026 feet. Santiam Highway goes through the north part of Santiam Pass, in the vicinity of what was once called Hogg Pass, at an elevation of 4816 feet. The old Santiam toll road goes through Santiam Pass about three miles south of Santiam Highway at an elevation of 4773 feet, but here again the road reaches higher ground two miles east of the main divide at an elevation of 4774 feet. McKenzie Highway, all paved, takes the place of the McKenzie toll road. Its maximum elevation is 5325 feet. The next highway to the south is the Willamette, which goes through Pengra Pass just west of Odell Lake. The old Oregon Central Military Road goes through Willamette Pass west of Summit Lake at an elevation of about 5600 feet. The Diamond Lake Highway crosses through a pass north of Crater Lake at an elevation of about 5920 feet. Crater Lake Highway has a summit elevation of about 6200 feet, west of Annie Spring. The highest point on the Green Springs Highway between Ashland and Klamath Falls is about 4700 feet at Hayden Pass. The backbone of the Cascade Range and most of the foothills have been accurately mapped by the USGS from Columbia River to a point just south of Crater Lake National Park. This work was started nearly 40 years ago. Much progress has been made during the past 15 years and as a result the table of peak elevations in Oregon printed below is probably not subject to much change: CK menn ......... Mount Hood Olallie Butte ..................... Mount Jefferson ........ Three Fingered Jack Mount Washington Belknap Crater .... Black Crater North Sister Middle Sister ......... South Sister ..............11,245 feet ..................................... 7,210 " ................... 10,495 .............. 7.848 " ................................ 7,802 .............. 6,877 ............ 7,260 ................ 10,094 .10,053 " ................. 10,354 " ​
Broken Top ....... ....................... 9,165 " Bachelor Butte ... 9.060 " Irish Mountain ................................................... 6,891 Maiden Peak ............ 7,811 Mount Yoran 7,132 " Diamond Peak ...................... .... 8,750 " Cowhorn Mountain ...... 7,666 " Howlock Mountain 8,351 Mount Thielsen 9,173 Mount Bailey ............ 8.363 " Mount Scott 8,938 Hillman Peak 8,156 Garfield Peak 8,060 Applegate Peak 8,135 " Union Peak ........................ 7,698 Mount McLoughlin ..................... .. 9,493" IK ............ In 1933 the USGS remapped an area surrounding Crater Lake National Park and determined new elevations for Mount Bailey and Mount Thielsen, which are shown above. The elevation given for Mount McLoughlin was determined in 1904 by the USC&GS. The 1920 determination by the USC&GS is not used because it refers to the top of the lookout house and not the groundline. It should be noted that the Cascade Range extends well into California and includes both Mount Shasta and Lassen Peak.
CASCADE SUMMIT, Klamath County. Cascade Summit railroad station in the extreme northwest corner of the county, came into being with the completion of the Southern Pacific Cascade Line in 1925-26. The office is just east of the summit tunnel through the Cascade Range and got its name on that account. The elevation is 4841 feet. Cascade Summit post office was established September 8, 1927, with Oliver M. Shannon first postmaster.
CASCADES, Hood River County. The Cascades of the Columbia River were caused by natural obstructions. Lewis and Clark, 1805 - 1806, the first white men to see this geographical feature, used the word "cascades," but not as a name. The Upper Cascades they called "Great Shute." Alexander Ross, in his Adventures of the First Settlers on the Oregon, writing as of 1810-1813, mentions the cascades a number of times, indicating the obstruction in the river. David Thompson, of the North West Company of Montreal, on July 13, 1811, referred to "Rapids and Falls" and on July 27 to "Grand Rapid." John Work, of the Hudson's Bay Company, on June 22, 1825, wrote: "Embarked at 3 o'clock and reached the Cascades at 1." (Washington Historical Quarterly, volume V, page 85.) David Douglas, the botanist, in his journal for 1826 uses the word often, but not always for the same locality. Rev. H. H. Spalding, writing from Fort Walla Walla on October 2, 1836, uses the words: "The Cascades or Rapids." For an account of the fight with the Indians at the Cascades see OPA Transactions for 1896. The Cascades were submerged early in 1938 as a result of the construction of the Bonneville Dam.
CASCADIA, Linn County. This post office was so named because it was situated in the Cascade Range. It was established in 1898.
CASEY, Clatsop County. Casey post office was on Youngs River ​
ATITI
about ten miles south of Astoria. It was named for a local family. The office was established in August, 1903, with Catherine Quinn postmaster. Casey office operated until August, 1911, when it was closed out to Astoria.
CASON CANYON, Gilliam County. Cason Canyon is southwest of Condon. It was named for Pemberton F. Cason, a nearby resident. The next canyon to the east, Pemberton Canyon, bears Cason's first name. See under PEMBERTON CANYON. For biography, see History of Central Oregon, page 618.
CASTLE CREEK, Jackson and Klamath counties. The various branches of Castle Creek rise on the west slope of the rim of Crater Lake, and Castle Creek itself flows into Rogue River. It was named Castle Creek because of the many spires and pinnacles in the canyon.
CASTLE ROCK, Clatsop County. Castle Rock stands in the Pacific Ocean about a mile northwest of Arch Cape and has an elevation of 157 feet. It has upward projections that simulate battlements with some degree of fidelity and as a whole looks not unlike a castle. The name is apposite.
CASTLE Rock, Morrow County. It does not seem to have taken much imagination on the part of early settlers to build rock castles in the air, for there are Castle rocks in most of the counties of the state, the one about a mile west of the station of that name in Morrow County being probably the best known. It is a low bluff, but is said actually to resemble a castle from the river. It is not known when this rock was first named. The railroad company has dropped the second word of the name for the station, as a matter of simplification.
CATCHING CREEK, Coos County. Catching Creek is an important stream tributary to South Fork Coquille River. It was named for Ephriam C. Catching, an early settler in the vicinity of Myrtle Point. Other geographic features in Coos County are also named for E. C. Catching or for his family.
CATHEDRAL Ridge, Hood River County. This ridge is one of the northwest spurs from Mount Hood and it is notable for the impressive cathedral-like spires along its summit. It was named in 1922 by a party of explorers from Hood River, led by C. Edward Graves, who was living in Arcata, California, in 1943. This party also named Eden Park, Wiyeast Basin and Vista Ridge.
CATHLAMET Bay, Clatsop County. Cathlamet Bay is on the south side of the Columbia River east of Tongue Point. Like many other Indian names, its meaning is hard to trace. Myron Eells identified the term with the Indian word Kalama, which is a town in Washington. On November 11, 1805, Lewis and Clark passed near the Indian village of Cathlamet, and referred to Calt-har-mar nation of Indians. Thwaites refers to this nation as an extinct Chinookan tribe. It was obviously a small unimportant group of natives, and there is a possibility that the tribe name was associated with the word calamet, meaning stone, indicating that the Indians lived in a stony place. The Indian village of Caltharmar was on the south bank of the Columbia River, possibly not far from the present site of Knappa. Thomas N. Strong of Portland is authority for the statement that after the visit of Lewis and Clark, the Caltharmar nation, much reduced by disease, crossed the Columbia River and settled near the present town of Cathlamet, Washi ​ngton.
Wilkes, in U. S. Exploring Expedition, volume XXIII, page 335, and in accompanying atlas refers to Cathlamet Bay as Swan Bay. Carlow, Harney County. This place and several other geographic features nearby were named for John Catlow, who was born in Yorkshire in 1824, and who, after emigrating to the United States, engaged in mining and stock raising in several parts of the West. He had extensive holdings in Harney County. He died in 1901. For biography, see History of Baker, Grant, Malheur and Harney Counties, 1902, page 701.
CAVE JUNCTION, Josephine County. This is the name of a community and post office on the Redwood Highway about 30 miles southwest of Grants Pass where the branch highway goes east to the Oregon Caves. In 1935 traffic into the caves had resulted in a community developing at the junction and a post office was applied for, with the name Caves City. The name was not satisfactory to the authorities, partly because the use of the word City implied that the place was incorporated, which was not a fact. Other suggestions were made, but on May 29, 1936, the USBGN adopted the name Cave Junction, which seemed to be satisfactory to those concerned. The post office was established in 1936. Caverhill, Grant County. The post office of Caverhill was established through the efforts of W. S. Caverhill, a local resident, and it was accordingly named for him. The post office was established February 7, 1916, and Nellie Caverhill was first postmaster.
CAVINESS, Malheur County, Caviness is a locality about fifteen miles west of Brogan and about ten miles southeast of Ironside, both airline measurements, named for a prominent local family. It is in the stock country. Caviness post office was established January 24, 1908, and was closed December 15, 1910. William P. Caviness was the only postmaster.
CAVITT CREEK, Douglas County. Cavitt Creek is a tributary of Little River. It flows about 20 miles east of Roseburg. It was named for Robert L. Cavitt. a bachelor who settled on its banks. He lived there alone for many years and was found dead in his cabin. The spelling Cavatt is wrong. ČAYUSE, Umatilla County. Cayuse is a railroad station and post office about 11 miles east of Pendleton and is one of the few geographical features in the state named for the Cayuse Indians. In 1924 Professor Edwin T. Hodge of the University of Oregon applied the name Cayuse Crater to a vent in the south part of Broken Top Mountain in Deschutes County. The Cayuse Indians were a Waiilatpuan tribe, formerly living at the headwaters of Walla Walla, Umatilla and Grande Ronde rivers, and between the Blue Mountains and Deschutes River. The tribe was closely associated with the neighboring Walla Wallas and Nez Perces, but was linguistically independent. After 1855 the tribe lived at the Umatilla Reservation. Their language is practically extinct, and their members have been absorbed by other tribes. The Cayuses committed the Whitman massacre in November, 1847. Alexander Ross gives the name Cajouse in Adventures of the First Settlers on the Oregon, page 127; Townsend's Narrative gives Kayouse; Palmer gives Caaguas and Kioose in his Journal, 1847, page 53; Hale gives Cailloux in his Ethnography and Philology, page 214; Scouler gives Cayoose; Wyeth, Cayouse and Skiuse; George Wilkes, Kiuse; Farnham, Skyuse; John Work, Kyauses; Washington Irving gives Sciatogas. The Cayuses had linguistic affinities with the Molallas of western Oregon. Indian horses have come ​
to be called "cayuses" because the Indians of that name were large breeders of the animals. The name formerly had only local use, but later spread over the Pacific Northwest. Cayuse in Umatilla County was formerly a stage station, and was at the foot of what was known as Meacham Hill. Cayuse post office was established October 29, 1867, with John S. White, first postmaster. There is a Cayuse Canyon opening onto Rock Creek northeast of Condon in Gilliam County. It was doubtless so named because cayuse ponies pastured there.
CAZADERO, Clackamas County. This is a station on the Estacada line of the Portland Electric Power Company, near which the Cazadero power plant of the company is located on the Clackamas River. For many years previous to the time the company made its additional development further up the river, Cazadero was the end of the interurban line. It was named by the original promoters of the line, and the word is Spanish, meaning a place for the pursuit of game. The name was doubtless suggested by Cazadero, California. Cecil, Morrow County. This is a railroad station and post office in the western part of Morrow County, at an elevation of 619 feet. It derived its name from the Cecil family, large land owners in the neighborhood, who gave land for the post office. Cedar CAMP, Marion County. Cedar Camp post office was established November 26, 1932, and operated until July 22, 1933. Mrs. Edith M. Filer was the only postmaster. This office was a little to the northeast of Hullt and in the same locality as the older Bridge Creek post office. Cedar camp was so known because there were several cedar shingle camps in the vicinity. Cedar Camp appears to be a name synonomous with the Bridge Creek locality. The compiler has been told that Cedar Creek is another name for Bridge Creek, but he cannot find any official sanction for the name Cedar Creek as applied to the stream. Cedar Mill, Washington County. This name was given by John Quincy Adams Young, who settled at the locality in 1862 and built a cabin. He ran a sawmill for a few years, then sold it to W. R. Everson. Young was the son of Dr. Elam Young, a well-known Oregon pioneer, who, with his family, came to Oregon from Ohio in 1847. Young was working in the Whitman sawmill at the time of the massacre on November 29, 1847, and escaped, but his son James was killed. The Young family arrived in Oregon City in 1848 and soon thereafter settled near the present site of Hillsboro. When J. Q. A. Young established Cedar Mill, he specialized in the cutting of cedar siding, shingles, shakes and other products, most of which were used in buildings in the town of Portland, which was then growing rapidly. He died in 1905, aged about 77 years. Cedar Mill may be reached from Portland by the Barnes and Cornell roads and has an elevation of 274 feet. The style Cedar Mills is wrong, although often seen in print.
CELILO, Wasco County. This name is used for a railroad station, for the navigation canal along the south bank of the Columbia River, and for "the rather low but romantic horseshoe shaped falls at the rock reef composing the upper end of this obstruction (Dalles) below which the Indian was accustomed to stand with his spear to pierce the jumping salmon. Like all other river falls these were known to the fur traders as The Chutes, and where the name Celilo was first used or whence it came is not known." T. C. Elliott, OHQ, June, 1915. Gustavus Hines, in ​
RIDGE, They told ans abouts by Jack than Oregon: Its History, Conditions and Prospects, Buffalo, 1851, page 14, says: "A boy whose Indian name was Ken-o-teesh, belonging to the Si-le-lah tribe, was received into the mission in April, and died on the 19th of the following August." Whether Si-le-lah is the same as Celilo is a matter of conjecture, although a study of Oregon tribe names gives no other solution. Early journals of fur traders and travelers do not mention Celilo. Celilo was used in 1859, according to Mr. Elliott, who said there are several suggested meanings, including "tumbling waters," "shifting sands," and the name of an Indian chief, etc. Dr. Leo Frachtenberg of the Smithsonian Institution, in the Oregon Journal, December 31, 1917, says Celilo is a Yakima word meaning "cleft in the bank," Mr. Elliott's article referred to above gives more theories about the name and much information about the Celilo Canal. Stories to the effect that Celilo is a name based on a remark of a steamboat captain, "I see, lie low," may be dismissed as fiction.
CEMETERY HILL, Wallowa County, Cemetery Hill is in section 20, township 1 north, range 48 east, near Imnaha. In 1931 J. H. Horner told the compiler that it was named because more than a dozen Indian graves were found there in pioneer days by Jack Johnson and others. A. C. Smith talked to the Indians about the origin of these graves but could learn nothing. They told him the graves were very old.
CEMETERY RIDGE, Wallowa County. This ridge is in the northeast part of the county and extends from Buckhorn Springs northeast. It is in township 3 and 4 north, range 48 east. According to J. H. Horner of Enterprise, it was named because in the vicinity were the remains of some Indians killed in a battle between Nez Perces Indians and a band of renegade Snakes. The circumstances of this fight were within the memories of the older Indians in the Wallowa Valley.
CENTERVILLE, Washington County. Centerville was the name of a small community on Dairy Creek at the road crossing about two miles north of Cornelius. The principal activity of the place revolved around the Trullinger mills, but today there is little to show for it. The locality was probably named because it was about the center of the Tualatin Plains, although it may have been named because it was supposed to be near the center of the county, Centreville post office was established October 11, 1866, with Edward Jackson first postmaster. This office was closed March 30, 1874. Ingles post office was established at the same place or nearby on September 28, 1881, with William S. Ingles, postmaster. The name of this office was changed to Centerville on September 2, 1889, and the office was closed September 30, 1904. These three offices may not all have been in exactly the same place, but they were in the same general locality.
CENTRAL, Linn County. Central was one of the earliest post offices established in what is now Linn County. The office was established June 13, 1852, with Joel Ketchum postmaster, and it was discontinued April 19, 1861. Early maps show the place about nine miles east of Albany and a little south. The office bore a descriptive name, probably because it was in a central location between Albany and the early settlements to the east.
CENTRAL, Multnomah County. On June 13, 1900, a post office named Central was established on the Multnomah County list. The office was discontinued December 14, 1903. James Channing was the first and only ​
and thoads was point pior postmaster. According to the Portland city directory of 1902 the post office was at the southeast corner of Claremont Avenue and the East Ankeny street carline. Due to the change of Portland street names the location of this post office should now be described at the southeast corner of Northeast Glisan Street and Northeast 53rd Avenue. This falls within the limits of Center Addition, a tract that was platted in 1890. A question arises as to why the name of the post office Central differed from the name of the addition Center. This discrepancy was doubtless caused by the fact that there was then a post office in Washington County called Centerville and postal authorities did not wish to run the risk of confusion. Also there was a community in Clackamas County called Center. This old Central post office had of course no connection with a later Portland office called Central station.
CENTRAL Point, Jackson County. This community received its name because two important pioneer wagon roads of the Rogue River Valley crossed at this point which was near the center of the valley. One of these roads was the north and south road from the Willamette Valley and the other was the road leading from Jacksonville, which was then the center of settlement, northeast to Table Rock, Sams Valley and other localities. Central Point was named by Isaac Constant who was a pioneer of 1852 and who lived near the crossroads. Magruder Brothers established a store at this point about 1870 and a post office was soon given the name of Central Point. The town is on the Siskiyou line of the Southern Pacific Company and on the Pacific Highway and has an elevation of 1272 feet.
CERRO GORDO, Lane County. Cerro Gordo is a point on the north side of Row River about five miles east of Cottage Grove. The words are Spanish and mean a rich hill in a mining district, otherwise a fat or round hill. Gordo also means obese. In 1945 John C. Veatch of the Portland bar told the writer that a number of veterans of the Mexican War settled in the vicinity of this butte and presumably displayed their knowledge of Spanish by naming the mountain. There is a notion that this hill resembles the one in Mexico where the battle of Cerro Gordo was fought but Mr. Veatch thinks this improbable and that the real reason for the name was that the slopes are of a golden brown in late summer, giving the appearance of a gold or rich mountain. Mr. Veatch is well acquainted with the locality because he was born there.
CHADWELL, Clatsop County. Chadwell is a locality on Lewis and Clark River about four miles south of Miles Crossing and south of Astoria. It bears the name of a place in England. Mr. and Mrs. William True were early settlers in the Lewis and Clark Valley. They came from Chadwell, England, and when the local post office was established February 20, 1882, True was the first postmaster and he named the place for his former home. The Clatsop County office was closed July 27, 1898, with papers to Melville. See information in the Astoria Column in the Astorian-Budget, June 7, 14, 20 and 26, 1946.
CHAMPAGNE CREEK, Douglas County. This stream flows into Umpqua River from the south a few miles northwest of Roseburg. It is in a locality known as the French Settlement because it was here that a number of French-Canadians established a sort of colony in the '50s. One of these settlers was Joseph Champagne and the creek bears his name. For data about the French Settlement, see Walling's History of Southern Oregon, page 428. ​
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CHAMPION CREEK, Lane County. Champion Creek, in the Bohemia mining district, was named for the Champion mine, which is situated near its headwaters. Champion post office was in operation in this locality from September, 1909, until October, 1918.
CHAMPLAIN, Multnomah County. A post office with the name Champlain was in service at Holbrook from January 27, 1892, to May 21, 1892, with Fred Gaskell postmaster. Information about the origin of the name is unsatisfactory. Holbrook post office had been in operation at or near this place from September, 1887, to October, 1888, when it was closed to Arthur. Millard C. Holbrook of Portland wrote the compiler in September, 1946, that Fred Gaskell was associated with his (Holbrook's) grandfather, Samuel Wilson, in a general merchandise store on the Holbrook farm. Gaskell applied for a post office to replace the discontinued office, and the name Champlain was suggested as being that of a nearby stream. The name Champlain was changed to Holbrook by postal authorities on May 21, 1892, and thus the old title was put back in service. Mr. Holbrook adds that the name Champlain is not known in the area and there does not seem to have been any stream called Champlain Creek. Just what Gaskell had in mind is a mystery.
CHAMPOEG, Marion County. The name Champoeg (Champooick, in early official records of the provisional government) is variously explained. According to F. X. Matthieu, the name was derived from the French words Campment du Sable, "camp of sand" (OHQ, volume I, page 88). According to other testimony, the origin is from French champ ("field"), and an Indian word, probably pooich ("root"); or the word may be purely Indian, designating a root or weed. According to H. S. Lyman, the name is not of French, but of Indian origin; Cham (hard ch), as in Chehalem, Chenamus, Chemeketa, Calapooya, OHQ, volume I, page 176. Frederick V. Holman says Cham poeg is an Indian word, Champoo, a weed, (ibid., volume XI, pages 22-23). Wilkes' map of 1841 shows Champooing. Champoeg was the site of the first warehouse of the Hudson's Bay Company on the Willamette River, south of Oregon City, and the shipping place of wheat of the Willamette Valler. The accessibility of Champoeg by land and water caused it to be chosen as the meeting place to consider a provisional government. The site of the Champoeg meeting place and monument is on the south bank of the Willamette River about midway between Newberg and Butteville. The settlement of Champoeg is about a half mile to the south on Mission Creek. Events leading up to the Champoeg meeting of May 2, 1813, are set forth in Scott's History of the Oregon Country, volume II, page 3, where begins Harvey W. Scott's address on the occasion of the unveiling of the Champoeg Monument on May 2, 1901. On February 15, 1841, Ewing Young died at a point not far from the present site of Newberg, and as he left considerable property and no heirs, the necessity of a civil government was manifest. Some little headway toward securing a government was made, but it was not until two years later that the movement acquired enough momentum to amount to anything. Two preliminary meetings were held in the spring of 1843, at the second of which a committee was appointed, and this committee was to report at a meeting to be held at Champoeg May 2, 1843. At the appointed time about an equal number of American and British citizens met, and by a narrow margin, the Americans gained control of the situation and started the organization that developed into the provisional government of Oregon, man, purely an Inder to ard ​
the first government by Americans on the Pacific Coast. The site of the Champoeg meeting is now owned by the state of Oregon, and is a public park. The state built a memorial building which was dedicated May 2, 1918. For further details of Champoeg Memorial Building see Scott's History of the Oregon Country, volume II, page 221. Champoeg post office was established April 9, 1850, with F. X. Matthieu first postmaster. The name was changed to Buteville on September 9, 1850. A post office named Champoag was then established on July 10, 1851, with Robert Newell postmaster. The name was changed to Newellsville on August 2, 1864, and to Champoeg on May 24, 1880. This office was discontinued in the summer of 1905.
CHANDLER, Polk County. Chandler post office was about five miles south-southeast of the present site of Valsetz, and a little north of the southwest corner of the county. It was in operation from April, 1895, until July, 1900, and bore the name of the first postmaster, Thomas C. Chandler. It was closed to Rocca. The office was on North Fork Rock Creek. Chandler Mountain nearby got its name from the same source as the post office.
CHAPARRAL CREEK, Wallowa County. This is a tributary of Minam River. Chaparral is a word that is often supposed to refer to a specific bush or shrub, but such is not the case in the western United States. Chaparral means any dense thicket of low shrubs, especially those that bear thorns. There is no such thing as a chaparral plant in this part of the world. In Spain and in other places chaparral refers frequently to dense growths of low evergreen oak trees, and it is from chaparro, an evergreen oak, that the word is derived.
CHAPIN CREEK, Morrow County. Chapin Creek is in the south part of the county and flows into Rock Creek about six miles southeast of Hardman. It bears the name of George Chapin who homesteaded in the neighborhood in early days. The spellings Chopen and Chapen are wrong.
CHAPMAN, Columbia County. Chapman took its name from Simcoe Chapman, who operated a logging enterprise in the eastern part of Columbia County. Simcoe Chapman was born in Ontario, Canada, in 1840. As a young man he engaged in lumbering and logging activities, a business which he followed all his life. He operated in Michigan and Minnesota, and came to Oregon in 1901. He founded both the Chapman Timber Company and the Chapman Lumber Company. He died in 1923.
CHAPMAN CREEK, Josephine County. This stream is about four miles southeast of Kerby. It bears the family name of William Chapman, a pioneer settler on its banks.
CHAPMAN Hill, Polk County. Chapman Hill is in the southeast part of Eola Hills, about two miles northwest of Salem. It has an elevation of a little over 400 feet. It was named for a Captain Chapman, who lived near the hill. Chapman Corners just to the north is named for the same man. In other days Chapman Hill was known as Schindler Hill but that name seems to have fallen into disuse.
CHAPMAN Point, Clatsop County. Chapman Point is the first important projection into the sea north of Elk Creek and the first outlying southern point of Tillamook Head. It received its name from W. S. Chapman, a civil engineer of Portland who owned the point and considerable property nearby. ​
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CHAPMAN SLOUGH, Harney County. This slough is part of Silvies River south of Burns. It was named for a pioneer settler along its banks, John Chapman.
CHARLESTON, Coos County. Charleston was named for Charles Haskell, who is said to have taken up a claim at the mouth of South Slough in 1853.
CHARLOTTE, Lane County. Charlotte post office was in service so long ago that the compiler knows little about it except its location. And that information is none too reliable. Charlotte post office was established in June, 1880, and was discontinued in April, 1881. Edgar R. Hayfield was the only postmaster. There is no available information about the reason for the name although the chances are it was the given name of Mrs. Hayfield or some other relative. A map dated 1889 shows Charlotte near the southwest corner of township 16 south, range 1 west. This puts it east-southeast of Mohawk.
CHARLTON, Columbia County. This station on the west bank of the Columbia River south of Goble was named for A. D. Charlton of Portland, for many years general passenger agent for the Northern Pacific Railway.
CHASE, Yamhill County. William 0. Chase was the first of five postmasters at Chase, and the office was named in compliment to him. Chase was about seven or eight miles west of McMinnville, in the west part of township 4 south, range 5 west. The office was established March 24, 1896, and operated for about ten years. The exact closing date is not available to the writer. Chaski BAY, Crater Lake National Park, Klamath County. This bay is on the south side of Crater Lake, and lies between Phantom Ship and Eagle Point. It was named by Will G. Steel for a minor deity of the Klamath Indians. A. S. Gatschet in his Dictionary of the Klamath Language gives the word as Tchashkai, meaning weasel. The "Weaslet" was a mythical being often alluded to by western Indians, and conjurers frequently mentioned weasels because of their curious freaks and jumps.
CHATFIELD, Wasco County. This siding is on the Union Pacific Railroad near Mosier. The station was named in 1920 for Roy D. Chatheld, a fruit grower in the neighborhood, who was at one time manager of the Mosier Fruit Growers Association. He was the donor of Memaloose Park, now owned by the state. It is east of Mosier.
CHEENEY CREEK, Clackamas County. Cheeney Creek is a tributary of Salmon River south of Welches. This stream was formerly called Sheeny Creek, a name applied by a survey party in the early '70s because of some episode connected with the camp cook, who was a Jewish boy unfamiliar with the woods. Many years later the Forest Service changed the name to Cheeney.
CHEHALEM, Yamhill County. Chehalem was one of the earliest post offices in Yamhill County. It was established March 14, 1851, the same day as Lafayette and North Yam Hill offices. The only earlier office in the county was Yam Hill Falls, established January 8, 1850. Chehalem post office was discontinued January 6, 1852. Daniel Dodge Bayley was the first postmaster at Chehalem. Bayley was born in Vermont in 1801, and he and his family were among those who came to Oregon in 1845 by the Meek Cutoff. The Bayleys arrived in the Chehalem Valley in September, 1845, and settled on a place near what is now Newberg. The ​
drained valley north untains in thshington andlaste Chehalem office was at the Bayley home. See under WEST CHEHALEM. Daniel Dodge Bayley later went to Tillamook Bay, where he named the town of Garibaldi, and served as first postmaster.
CHEHALEM MOUNTAINS, Washington and Yamhill counties. These are the highest mountains in the Willamette Valley, and that section of the valley north of them is generally known as the Tualatin Valley, drained by Tualatin River. The Chehalem Mountains and some more or less independent spurs extend from the Willamette River east of Newberg northwest to the foothills of the Coast Range south of Forest Grove. The highest known point at the southern end is due north of Newberg, and has an elevation of 1447 feet. At a point on the northern end east of Wapato is a summit of 1633 feet, called Bald Peak. It may be assumed that the modern word Chehalem comes from the Indian name Chahelim, listed under the heading Atfalati (Tualatin), Handbook of American Indians, volume I, page 108. This name is given by Gatschet in 1877 to one of the bands of Atfalati, a division of the Kalapooian family of Indians. Gatschet lists more than twenty of these bands, all living in the general vicinity of the Chehalem Mountains. H. S. Lyman in OHQ, volume I, page 323, refers to a point near the mouth of what is now known as Chehalem Creek and calls it Cham-ho-kuc, but gives no meaning or explanation.
CHEHULPUM CREEK, Marion County. This stream rises in the hills northeast of Jefferson and flows westward into a branch of Santiam River. It has also been known as Doty Creek, but in 1934 a number of local residents petitioned to have the Indian name adopted. The petition was approved by the Marion County Court and the Oregon Geographic Board. In February 1935 the USBGN adopted the name Chehulpum Creek for the stream, which flows under Pacific Highway East just south of Looney Butte. Geo. H. Himes is authority for the statement that Chehulpum was an Indian word meaning Beaver Illahe, or land where beaver were plentiful.
CHEMAWA, Marion County. Chemawa is one of the Indian names in the state that has several fanciful meanings attributed to it, including "our old home," "true talk" and "gravelly soil." There is little on record to substantiate any of the meanings. Silas B. Smith, Clatsop County pioneer, is authority for the statement that Chemay-way was the Indian name for a point on the Willamette River about two and a half miles south of Fairfield where Joseph Gervais settled in 1827-28. The same name was applied to Wapato Lake. Indian names were bestowed generally on account of physical peculiarity, and not for sentimental reasons, and the name may mean "gravelly soil," but gravel is neither peculiar nor abundant at either one of the places mentioned. Many Indian names began with Che and Cham, particularly those applied to places in the Willamette Valley, such as Chemawa, Chehalem, Chemeketa and Champoeg. For information on this matter see article by H. S. Lyman, OHQ, volume I, page 316. Chemawa has an elevation of 165 feet.
CHEMULT, Klamath County. This community, elevation 4758 feet, is toward the north end of the county, on The Dalles-California Highway. It is also a station on the Southern Pacific Cascade line and the junction with that line and the Great Northern Railway. The name is that of a Klamath Indian chief who was one of the twenty-six who signed the treaty of October 14, 1864. The geography of the locality is shown on the USGS map of the Chemult quadrangle. ​
CHENOWETH CREEK, Wasco County. Chenoweth Creek rises in the hills west of The Dalles, and after flowing across Chenoweth Flat reaches the Columbia River southeast of Crates Point. This stream was named for Justin Chenoweth who was a prominent pioneer of Oregon. He was born in Clark County, Illinois, November 17, 1825, and was educated as a surveyor. He started to California in 1849 by way of New Orleans and Panama, but on reaching New Orleans he changed his plans and proceeded up the Mississippi to Saint Louis and thence to Fort Leavenworth. At Fort Leavenworth he joined, as a civilian, the party of the First U. S. Mounted Rifles which reached The Dalles in the fall of 1849. Chenoweth lived for a short time in the Willamette Valley, taught school, was a clerk for the territorial legislature and was employed in the territorial library. He married Mary H. Vickers, at Butteville, December 9, 1852. He settled on a claim west of The Dalles, and carried the mail between The Dalles and the Cascades in a small boat. He was actively engaged in surveying public lands, both as a private surveyor and as United States surveyor at the Vancouver land office. His cousin, Francis A. Chenoweth, was one of the promoters of the tramway at the Cascades and it is a family tradition that Justin surveyed the line. He left The Dalles about 1866. He died in Portland March 16, 1898, and his obituary appears in the Oregonian March 20, 1898. Nathan Olney owned a store near Crates Point before Chenoweth settled there, and Chenoweth Creek was then known as Olney Creek, but that name did not persist. The name of the geographic feature near The Dalles is frequently spelled Chenowith, but the USBGN has officially adopted the form Chenoweth. Dr. William C. McKay is authority for the statement that the Wasco Indian name for the locality of Chenoweth Creek was Thlemit, which means a caving or washing away of the banks.
CHERRY CREEK, Jefferson County. This creek was named on account of the wild cherries growing along its banks. It flows into the John Day River near Burnt Ranch, and was one of several geographic features in central Oregon named by the pack train party of Joseph H. Sherar on the way to the John Day mines in 1862. See also ANTELOPE, BAKEOVEN and Muddy CREEK. Cherry Creek post office was named for the nearby stream. The office was established on the Crook County list on June 23, 1884, with Mrs. Harriet P. Tucker first postmaster. The office was closed June 21, 1886. All the evidence available to the compiler shows that this office was in what is now Jefferson County, but that may not have been the fact.
CHERRY CREEK, Wallowa County. William Duncan, a pioneer stockman named this stream because of the many wild cherry trees that grew along its banks. Cherry Creek flows into Snake River in township 5 north, range 48 east.
CHERRY GROVE, Washington County. Inquiries as to how this com'munity received its name have produced no results. There are very few cherries in the place and the postmaster in 1926 wrote that he was there at the time it was named and can give no reason for the name being selected. It is supposed that its proximity to Forest Grove had something to do with the form of name selected.
CHERRYVILLE, Clackamas County. Cherryville is near the Mount Hood Loop Highway. It is said to have been named because of the wild cherries growing in the neighborhood.
CHESHER, Lane County. The pioneer post office Chesher was named ​
for James P. Chesher, its first postmaster. The office was established April 1, 1875, and was closed August 21, 1890. It was reestablished December 27, 1892, the name was changed to Varien and it went with that name until June 7, 1895, when it was closed again. For a short biography of J. P. Chesher, see Illustrated History of Lane County, page 500. The post office was a few miles west of what is now Veneta, not far from the present community Noti, in the Coast Range on the upper drainage of Long Tom River. The name should not be confused with Cheshire, later applied to a place west of Junction City. The name Varien came from Paul Varien Bollman, son of John W. Bollman, the postmaster at the time the name was changed.
CHESHIRE, Lane County. Cheshire is a station on the line of the Southern Pacific Company south of Corvallis. It is near the Long Tom River. It was platted in 1913 as Hubert, but this caused confusion with another station on the same line, Huber, so the railroad company changed the name to Cheshire. The name Hubert was selected to compliment Hubert Cheshire, a favorite small boy of the neighborhood. Hubert post office was established March 20, 1914, with Henry C. Ball postmaster. The name of the office was changed to Cheshire on May 12, 1914. The Cheshire family has been prominent in the locality.
CHESNIMNUS CREEK, Wallowa County. This stream flows into Joseph Creek, and for many years was shown on maps as Chesninimus Creek. Investigations by the U. S. Forest Service indicated that this spelling was in error, and the USBGN adopted the shorter form. The word is Indian in its origin and according to J. H. Horner of Enterprise means Thorn Butte, referring to a locality near the head of the stream where there were several thorn thickets. The Indians camped there and called the place Sis-nim-mux, accent on the second syllable. The suffix mux meant butte or mount.
CHESTNUT SPRING, Wallowa County. Chestnut Spring is about ten miles southeast of Minam. It bears the name of Ed Chestnut, who had a homestead in the vicinity. He was an early settler on Cricket Flat.
CHETCO RIVER, Curry County. The name is applied to various features in southwest Oregon, and is derived from the name of a small Indian tribe that lived along the lower reaches of the river. Early day spelling was Chetko and Chitko. For information about the Chetco Indians see Pioneer History of Coos and Curry Counties, edited by Orvil Dodge. Mt. Emily in the southwest part of Curry County is sometimes known as Chetco Peak, but the real Chetco Peak is in the east part of the county and has an elevation of 4648 feet. See USGS topographic map of the Kerby quadrangle. The spelling Chetco has been adopted by the USBGN. For editorial about an Indian woman, Lucky Dick, the last of the Chetcos, see the Oregonian, January 23, 1940. A post office named Chetco was among the earliest in southwest Oregon. This office was established March 3, 1863, with Augustus Miller first postmaster. It was discontinued November 15, 1910. Old maps show this office at various places on the coast between the mouth of Chetco River and the Oregon-California state line. It was probably moved according to the availability of a postmaster.
CHEWAUCAN Marsh, Lake County. This is a large marsh, fed principally by Chewaucan River and draining into Lake Abert. The elevation of the upper end of the marsh is 4311 feet and that of the lower end ​
4291, according to the Strahorn railroad survey. The name is derived from the Klamath Indian words tchua, meaning wild potato, and keni, a general suffix meaning locality or place. The wild potato is generally known in Oregon and Washington as the wapato, arrowhead or sagittaria. It was an article of food with many tribes. See USGS WSP 220 and 363 for information about the marsh. See also the Oregonian, September 14, 1925, page 11, for information about the wapato.
CHICKEN Hill, Grant and Union counties. Chicken Hill is in the Blue Mountains on the watershed between the Grande Ronde and North Fork John Day rivers. The local tradition about the origin of the name is to the effect that in the days of the mining fever a freighter was hauling in supplies from Columbia River points and on top of an otherwise bulky load were several crates of chickens for the mining camps. The load capsized before reaching the top of the hill and the chicken coops were so badly smashed that the fowls escaped into the brush, crowing and cackling. The locality has been called Chicken Hill ever since.
CHICKENHOUSE GULCH, Grant County. This gulch was named for a sheepherder's cabin built there in the early days. The cabin was very rough and so were the herders when they referred to their abode. Chico, Wallowa County. The town of Chico was named by George Harris, who had formerly lived in Chico, California, and when he took up a homestead in Wallowa County, he named it for his former home. Chico is a Spanish word meaning little. Chico, California, is laid out on the old Spanish land grant, Rancho del Arroyo Chico. This rancho was in 1854 certified to General John Bidwell, an early California pioneer, who laid out the town of Chico. Stories to the effect that Chico, California, was named for a governor, Chico, seem to have no foundation and the compiler can find no record of any such person.
CHIEF JOSEPH MOUNTAIN, Wallowa County. This mountain has been known at various times as Tunnel Mountain and Point Joseph, but in 1925 the USBGN officially named it Chief Joseph Mountain in honor of the famous Nez Perce Indian chief. Joseph, or Young Joseph as he was sometimes known, was born near the mouth of Imnaha River in June, 1837, and died at Nespelem, Colville Indian Reservation, September 21, 1904. He was the son of Old Joseph, who died about 1871, and the grandson of Ollicut, a Cayuse Chief. Old Joseph took his wife from a band living near the mouth of Asotin Creek. In May, 1877, Young Joseph and his band began to threaten the white settlers in the Wallowa Valley, claiming the valley as his ancestral home. After some skirmishing and encounters, the Indians finally began their famous journey to Montana, pursued by troops. Chief Joseph made his last stand at the Battle of the Big Hole, August 9, 1877, and on October 4, 1877, he surrendered to Colonel Nelson A. Miles at Bear Paw, Montana. For references to this matter see Scott's History of the Oregon Country, volume II, pages 104 and 332. For news story about launching of Liberty ship named for Chief Joseph, see Oregon Journal, March 28, 1943, main section, page 15.
CHILOQUIN, Klamath County. Chiloquin is the whiteman's form of a Klamath Indian family name Chaloquin. Chaloquin was the village chief of the old Indian town of Bosuck Siwas, or Painted Rock, and his name was given as Chaloquenas in the treaty of 1864. Two sons, George and Mose Chaloquin, served with the state troops in the Modoc War. China Cap, Union County. This peak is in the southwest part of and encolaiming and begaouch of iet og ho die K a S = ​
Wallowa Mountains and has an elevation of 8638 feet as shown on the
USGS map of the Telocaset quadrangle. While the compiler has no written record of when it received its name, it is obvious from its picture that it bears a close similarity to the hats worn by Chinese laborers throughout the Pacific Northwest in the early days of development, and it must have been named on that account.
CHINA CREEK, Wallowa County. This is a small stream flowing into Snake River from China Gulch in township 4 north, range 49 east. In the days of placer mining in the Pacific Northwest and particularly near Lewiston there were a great many Chinese panning for gold, and there are China bars, China creeks and China flats in many parts of Oregon, Washington and Idaho. It was at these points that large colonies of Chinese carried on their mining operations. China Hat, Deschutes County. China Hat is a butte east of Paulina Mountains. It received its name because, when viewed from Fort Rock, it resembled the style of hat worn by Chinese during early days of the Pacific Northwest.
CHINCHALO, Klamath County. This is a station on the Cascade line of the Southern Pacific Company. It bears the name of a Klamath Indian chief and medicine man. According to Will G. Steel his domain was in the Klamath Marsh country. He was a signer of the treaty of 1864 as Makosas.
CHINIDERE MOUNTAIN, Hood River County. This mountain is just west of Wahtum Lake and has an elevation of 4674 feet. H. D. Langille, pioneer resident of Hood River Valley and an authority on the Mt. Hood region, said that Chinidere was the last reigning chief of the Wasco Indians, and that this mountain was named for him.
CHINOOK BEND, Lincoln County, Chinook Bend is about three miles upstream from Kernville, at a point where the Siletz River makes a pronounced bend first south, then north. The geography of the locality is shown on the Geological Survey map of the Euchre Mountain quadrangle. In November, 1945, Andrew L. Porter of Newport wrote the compiler as follows: "Chinook Bend was so named because the early run of Chinook salmon would lie there and wait for the rain to make fresh water before going up to the spawning ground. It was a good place to troll for salmon."
CHINQUAPIN MOUNTAIN, Jackson County. There are a number of geographic features in Oregon named for the western chinquapin, Castanopsis chrysophylla, of these Chinquapin Mountain, in the southeast part of Jackson County, is probably the best known. The western chinquapin is sometimes called the golden leaved chestnut. In the lower mountain altitudes it grows into a handsome tree, 75 feet high in some places. On the high mountains it is generally a shrub. It is found generally on the slopes of the southern Cascade Range and the Sierra Nevada.
CHITWOOD, Lincoln County. This is a station on the line of the Southern Pacific Company between Corvallis and Toledo. George T. Smith, postmaster at Chitwood, wrote in 1925 that the station and post office were named for Joshua Chitwood, who lived near the present site of the community when the railroad was built down the Yaquina River. This railroad was built between 1881 and 1885. For particulars of this construction see Scott's History of the Oregon Country, volume IV, page 334. ​
CHLORIDE, Baker County. Chloride post office was established in the Blue Mountains on June 18, 1901, with George B. Rogers first postmaster. The office was closed on May 28, 1904. It was installed to serve a mining development in the east part of township 8 south, range 37 east. In December, 1945, LeRoy A. Grettum of Baker wrote the compiler as follows: "This post office was at the Chloride Mine in the Blue Mountains near the headwaters of Rock Creek, west of Haines. According to people in Haines who were working there at the time, both the post office and the mine shut down in the spring of 1904 because a very bad snow slide carried away a lot of surface improvements and the resulting debris blocked the tunnel." According to F. W. Libbey of the State Department of Geology and Mineral Industries the name Chloride was doubtless applied because of the presence of silver chloride in the local outcrops. Mr. Libbey writes: "Chloride is not an uncommon name in western mining camps. In the early days in the West a lessee or prospector who followed a thin vein or small high-grade ore deposit was called a chlorider. According to Albert H. Fay in his Glossary of the Mining and Mineral Industry the term is said to have originated at Silver Reef in southwestern Utah when the rich silver chloride ores were being worked. The name was later extended to apply to similar workers in other fields and to other types of high-grade deposits."
CHOCKTOOT CREEK, Lake County. This creek flows into Sycan Marsh from the east, and was named for a well-known Indian chief of the Piute or Snake tribe.
CHOPTIE PRAIRIE, Klamath County. Choptie Prairie is between Saddle Mountain and Chiloquin Ridge, on Klamath Indian Reservation. The name is derived from a Klamath Indian word meaning hidden, or secluded, which well describes the place.
CHRISTMAN, Lane County. Christman post office was established January 6, 1888, and discontinued September 6, 1893, with Mattie Kirk the only postmaster. It was on Row River southeast of Cottage Grove, probably in the northeast part of township 21 south, range 2 west. In 1947 John C. Veatch of Portland, reared in the Cottage Grove area, wrote the compiler as follows: "I think this office was on the ranch of Wes Christman who lived on Row River a few miles from the Star office. As I remember, Wes moved into Cottage Grove about 1893 and this was probably the reason for closing the office."
CHRISTMAS CREEK, Wallowa County. This small stream flows into Snake River in section 32, township 4 north, range 50 cast. It was named by James Tryon and Lu Knapper. They took their sheep to the canyon for winter range on Christmas Day, 1888, and built a cabin on the creek.
CHRISTMAS LAKE, Lake County. Christmas Lake is a small body of water in township 26 south, range 18 east, about 25 miles east of Fort Rock. The name is one of the puzzles in Oregon nomenclature. It is frequently asserted that John C. Fremont discovered and named the lake in question, which is not a fact. A map of the Oregon territory accompanying Senator Lewis F. Linn's report, prepared under the direction of Col. J. J. Abert in 1838, shows a river flowing from a lake near what is now known as Drew Valley, the river being labeled Christmas River. It is not clear where this name was obtained, but it is possible that such a stream may have been named by Hudson's Bay Company men. Fur brigades visited central Oregon as early as 1825, and may have had something to do with the name of Christmas River. During the second gene Willo north istic noun theo south ​
exploring expedition of Captain Fremont, which left Kansas in May, 1843, its leader conducted the party through the Deschutes Valley, and after naming a number of geographic features, he arrived in the Warner Valley and on December 24, 1843, he reached and named Christmas Lake. This lake is much further southeast than the lake now known by that name, and there is but little doubt that it was what is now known as Hart Lake that Fremont christened. It is an important member of the Warner Lakes group, and near the central part of the valley. There is at present no information as to how the other Christmas Lake got its name, but it is some distance from Fremont's route, and there is no evidence that he ever knew of its existence. The surveyor general of Oregon issued a map of the state in 1863 which shows Christmas Lake in the Warner Valley in the place where Fremont discovered and named it. It has been called Hart Lake for many years.
CHRISTY CREEK, Lane County. This is the largest tributary of North Fork Willamette River. It was named for one "Doc" Christy, a veterinarian of Eugene, who located a mining claim near its mouth in early days.
CHROME RIDGE, Grant County. Chrome Ridge is south of John Day River and just west of Fields Creek. It is one of several geographic features in Oregon named for the mineral chromite. In July, 1945, Dr. F. W. Libbey, director of the State Department of Geology and Mineral Industries, wrote the compiler as follows: "The word chrome is used rather loosely to mean chrome ore or chromite. Chromite is found in lenticular deposits at various places in southwestern Oregon and central Oregon, especially in Grant, Josephine and Curry counties. Thus there is the connection between chromite deposits and the word chrome which has been applied to some geographic features in Oregon. Chromite or chrome ore is usually considered to be a chemical mixture of ferrous oxide and chromic oxide. However, it never occurs in nature as this theoretical compound because it always contains impurities such as silica, alumina and magnesia. The chromite ore in Grant County is, generally speaking, lower grade than the chromite ore of southwestern Oregon. The Grant County ore averages a lower percentage of chromic oxide." Chromite was not searched for in pioneer days and the use of the name for Oregon geographic features is relatively modern.
CHUCKSNEY MOUNTAIN, Lane County. This mountain, elevation 5756 feet, is about 12 miles north of Waldo Lake. It bears the name of a local Indian celebrity who made his home in the valley of Middle Fork Willamette River.
CINNAMON BUTTE, Douglas County. This butte is about five miles north of Diamond Lake, and has an elevation of 6400 feet. It was named by O. C. Houser of the Forest Service in 1908 because of the characteristic color of the brush and rock formation near its summit. The USBGN has adopted this name.
CIPOLE, Washington County. The name of this station on the Southern Pacific line west of Tualatin is pronounced si-pole. Cipole is near the large onion raising lands of the county and the name represents an imperfect representation of the Italian word for onion, cipolla, pronounced chi-po-la.
CIRCLE BAR, Harney County. This railroad station was named for the Circle Bar Ranch which used that brand. It is about nine miles southeast of Crane. ​
Circlecular course Tillamoo Circle Cro Douglas Douglas Cowin eventuan Beach structure
CIRCLE CREEK, Clatsop County. Circle Creek and its tributaries drain a considerable part of Tillamook Head. The stream got its name because of its circular course, though it far from describes a complete circle. The Circle Creek bridge is a well-known structure on the Oregon Coast Highway southwest of Cannon Beach Junction, although a relocation of the highway will eventually eliminate the crossing Civil BEND, Douglas County. Civil Bend is one of the amusing place names of Douglas County because it was applied in derision-the locality was so uncivil. The Bend is a prominent reverse kink in South Umpqua River a little to the south west of Roseburg. The name is said to refer to the boisterous activities of visitors who came to see the horse races in early days. According to Israel B. Nichols, an old timer in the locality, in the Roseburg News-Review, May 7, 1948, "there was always lots of drinking and lots of fights, so they called it Civil Bend." Civil Bend post office was in service from September, 1881, to October, 1888, with James M. Dillard first postmaster. When the office was re-established in 1889, postal authorities objected to a name with two words. A new name, Brockway, was selected in honor of B. B. Brockway, a pioneer settler.
CLACKAMAS, Clackamas County. The Indian word Clackamas has been used as the name for two post offices in Clackamas County, at different times and places. The first of these offices, established September 29, 1852, with the name Clackemas and John Foster postmaster, was put on the Marion County list, but was changed to the Clackamas County list with the revised spelling Clackamas on March 22, 1853. It was discontinued October 18, 1853. Preston's map of 1856 shows the site of the office about two miles northwest of what was later Logan. When the Oregon and California began railroad service from Portland south on September 5, 1870, to the place then called Waconda, a station between Milwaukie and Oregon City was called Marshville and it is shown that way on the first time card. See Scott's History of the Oregon Country, volume IV, page 30, for a facsimile of this time table. It is not clear just why the name Marshville was applied, as there is very good land drainage in the locality, though topographic maps show a small swampy area about a mile to the south. The name Marshville may have been named for a person, Marsh. There are references to the place by the name Marshfield, but that was not the railroad name. On December 8, 1873, a post office was established at the locality with the name Clackamas, and with Noah N. Matlock first postmaster. The railroad was not long in changing the station name from Marshville to Clackamas. All was then in harmony.
CLACKAMAS County. This county, together with Clackamas River and other features in Oregon, received its name from the Clackamas Indians, a Chinookan tribe, living along the river. The remnants of the tribe were moved to the Grand Ronde Reservation. It was formerly a large tribe. Lewis and Clark use the form Clackamus, and other forms are Klackamus, in George Wilkes' History of Oregon and on Charles Wilkes' map of 1841; Clackamus; Nekamus, in OHQ, volume I, page 320; Klackamas, in Townsend's Narrative; Akimmash, Clackamis, Clackamos, Clackemus, Clackemurs, Klackamat, Thlakeimas, Tlakimish, and many others. Clackamas County was one of the original four districts of early Oregon, the other three being Twality, Yamhill and Champooick. It was created July 5, 1843, and at present has a land area of 1890 square miles. An excellent map of Clackamas County is published by the ​
Bureau of Soils of the Department of Agriculture. For full information concerning the name and establishment of this county see OHQ, volume XI, No. 1, which contains an article by Frederick V. Holman on the origin of Oregon counties. *Clark BRANCH, Douglas County. Walling, in his History of Southern Oregon, page 441, says this stream north of Myrtle Creek was named for James A. Clark, whose land claim was near its mouth. William Hudson later owned the property.
CLARK CREEK, Baker County. This stream is a tributary of Burnt River. It is said to have been named for a miner who accidentally shot himself there in the early '60s. There was at one time a post office known as Clarksville near this stream. This office was organized to serve a territory near placer diggings developed along Burnt River in 1861-63.
CLARK CREEK, Hood River County. This creek drains one of the lobes of Newton Clark Glacier, and is named Clark Creek on that account. The next large stream to the north is called Newton Creek for the same reason. Both are tributaries of East Fork Hood River.
CLARK CREEK, Union County. Clark Creek is the correct name of this stream, not Clarks. The creek was never owned by anyone named Clark, and the possessive of this and many other geographic names should be discarded.
CLARK GLACIER, Lane County. This is the westward of the two small glaciers on the south side of the South Sister, and was named for William Clark in 1924 by Professor Edwin T. Hodge of the University of Oregon. So far as known it is the only geographic feature in the state named for the great explorer except the Lewis and Clark River in Clatsop County. Thwaites' Original Journals of the Lewis and Clark Expedition gives a detailed account of the exploration, and on page xxvii of the first volume is a short biography of William Clark. He was born in Virginia on August 1, 1770, and was the younger brother of George Rogers Clark (1752-1818). At the age of 23 he was a first lieutenant in General Anthony Wayne's western army. He retired from the army in 1796 with brevet rank of captain, and lived quietly with his family, occupied chiefly in adjusting the affairs of his older brother until 1803 when he was invited by Meriwether Lewis to join Jefferson's proposed exploring expedition to the Pacific Ocean. After the expedition Jefferson appointed Clark brigadier-general of the militia of Louisiana, and also Indian agent for Louisiana. Subsequently Clark was surveyor general for Illinois, Missouri and Arkansas. He died on September 1, 1838. For details of Clark's life see Coues' History of the Expedition of Lewis and Clark, volume I. William Clark spelled his name without a final "e," though that form has been used in many places, especially in Clarke County, Washington, until 1926, when the state legislature cut off the "e." For editorial comment on this error see the Oregonian, December 3, 1925.
CLARKE, Clackamas County, Clarke is a crossroads community in the Highland district about fifteen miles southeast of Oregon City. In pioneer days this was known as the Ringo settlement. About 1870 one "Friday" Jones bought some property there for "I yoke of oxen, a shotgun and $200." This he sold in 1876 to Irving L. Clarke, the latter transaction covering 320 acres. Clarke started a store and a little later got a post office. This office, called Clarkes, was established May 13, 1889. with Clarke first postmaster. The office was closed December 13, 1904. ​
Raymond Caufield of Oregon City was good enough to gather these facts from George A. Clarke, a son of Irving L. Clarke, in September, 1945.
CLARNIE, Multnomah County. The origin of the name Clarnie is obscure, but the following explanation is derived from trustworthy sources: Two locators of the Oregon Railway and Navigation Company decided to name the railroad station after their daughters, the name of one being Clara, and that of the other being Jennie. They combined syllables of the two names to make Clarnie. This station is five miles west of Fairview.
CLARNO, Wheeler County. This post office is on John Day River near Clarno Bridge, and in 1944, happened to be in Wheeler County. Clarno was named for one of the earliest white settlers on John Day River, Andrew Clarno. Just below the post office is the site of the proposed Clarno Dam for impounding irrigation water. For information about this dam see the co-operative report on the John Day project issued by the state engineer and by the U. S. Reclamation Service in 1916. The Clarno post office is generally situated not far from the bridge, depending upon who can be prevailed upon to take the postmastership. Sometimes it is in Wasco County, sometimes in Wheeler. Clarno has an elevation of 1304 feet. Clarno post office was established September 15, 1894, with Nannie Chichester postmaster. It was then in Gilliam County, as Wheeler County had not yet been formed. When Andrew Clarno settled on John Day River, he had no neighbors. Stockmen in those days did not feel the need of any. When he heard that a friend had settled on a homestead about 20 miles to the east, near the present site of Fossil, he rode over on horseback, and said: "Bill, don't you think you're crowding me a little?" Maps and postal records of the '80s show a post office named Crown Rock in the present locality of Clarno, but the compiler has been unable to get information about it, except that it was named for a rock formation nearby. . Classic RIDGE, Tillamook County. Classic Ridge is between Nehalem and Neahkahnie Mountain. Classic Lake is east of the ridge. These features were named by J. H. Edwards of Portland, who was interested in music, and had hopes of developing a community of persons devoted to the arts. ClATSKANIE, Columbia County. Silas B. Smith, Clatsop County pioneer, is quoted in the OHQ, volume I, page 322, to the effect that Tlats-kani was a point in the Nehalem Valley reached by the Indians from the Columbia River either by way of what we now know as Youngs River, or by way of Clatskanie River. The Indians used the word Tlatskani by applying it to certain streams indicating the route they took to get to Tlats-kani, and not as the name of the streams for Indians were not in the habit of naming streams. White men carelessly applied the name to the stream. Clatskanie River in Columbia County, and Klaskanine River in Clatsop County were thus named, and Clatskanie, a town, developed near the point where the former joined the Columbia River. Clatskanie is the spelling adopted by the USBGN for the features in Columbia County. The locality Tlats-kani in the hills south of Clatskanie River was named for the Tlatskanai Indians, who lived along the river and in the Nehalem Valley to the south. See Handbook of American Indians, volume II, page 763. There are many variations in the ​
spelling of the name. A news story in the Rainier Review, October 2, 1931, says that the town of Clatskanie was first known as Bryantville, which was platted early in 1884. A similar story is carried in an Historical Records Survey release printed in the Review, March 27, 1936. The compiler is unable to reconcile these statements with the fact that Clatskanie is shown on the official post office list as early as December, 1871.
CLATSOP, Clatsop County. Clatsop post office was established near the south end of Clatsop Plains in July, 1894, with Alexander Tagg first postmaster. This office operated with one intermission until July 25, 1919, when the business was turned over to Warrenton. The office was of course named for the county and for the Clatsop Indians. It was doubtless moved from time to time. The Tagg place was about a half a mile east of Clatsop school.
CLATSOP COUNTY. Clatsop District was created by the provisional legislature by an act passed June 22, 1844, and comprised parts of the northern and western parts of Twality District. F. V. Holman's article on the history of Oregon counties in OHQ, volume XI, page 24, gives detailed information about the formation and boundaries of the county. Clatsop is the name of an Indian tribe; mentioned in Lewis and Clark Journals and Gass' Journal. For description of Clatsop County in 1855, see the Oregonian, June 16, 1855. For history of Clatsop County, by Preston W. Gillette, ibid., November 20, December 12, 1895; January 18, 1896. For narrative of the Clatsop Indians, by Preston W. Gillette, ibid., October 23, 1899, page 6; his narrative of Mrs. Michel, last of the Clatsops, ibid., March 10, 1903, page 3; his narrative of pioneers of Clatsop County, ibid., November 20, 1895, page 6; January 18, 1896; description of Clatsop County in 1881, by Alfred Holman, ibid., September 9, 1887; biography and portrait of Mrs. Michel, February 26, 1905, page 22. Clatsop is given as Tlahsops by Silas B. Smith, in the OHQ, volume I, page 320. Townsend's Narrative gives Klatsop. Hale, in U. S. Exploring Expedition, Ethnography and Philology, 1846, page 215, gives Tlatsap. In OPA Transactions for 1887, page 85, the name is Tschlahtsoptchs. Dart, in Indian Affairs Report for 1851, gives Clatsops. Lewis and Clark give Clat Sops, Clatsops, etc. Farnham, in Travels, New York, 1843, page 111, gives Clatstops. There are many other variations. The Clatsops were of the Chinookan family, formerly at the mouth of the Columbia River, on the south side, between Tongue Point and the ocean, and south to Tillamook Head. Lewis and Clark spent the winter of 1805-06 among them at Fort Clatsop. Clatsop County has a land area of 820 square miles, according to the U. S. Bureau of the Census. The name Clatsop has been applied to a number of geographic features in Oregon, includ. ing Clatsop Plains and Clatsop Spit. Claxtar, Marion County. Claxtar is one form of the name of the Tlatskanai Indian tribe, generally known as Clatskanie. For information about this tribe see Handbook of American Indians, volume II, page 763. When the Oregon Electric Railway was built officials used this name for a station north of Salem, adopting the spelling employed by Lewis and Clark.
CLAYPOOL BRIDGE, Linn County. This bridge is about four miles north of Lebanon. C. H. Stewart of Albany wrote the compiler in 1927: "In early days the old Indian trail south through the Willamette Valley nd's Narks by Silaskel, Febru nem nook Heade; between merly at ther varia ​
was discontinue Lake, Lahe east of the Indian one bali lado The Dalist office. Blecek ranch crossed the South Santiam near this point. The bridge is on the donation land claim of Samuel R. Claypool, a prominent pioneer citizen of that locality,"
CLEAR CREEK, Columbia County. Clear Creek flows into Nehalem River from the west in the extreme southwest corner of the county. Its name is of course descriptive. Many years ago there was a post office called Clear Creek, but it did not last long. Old maps show the place close to the mouth of the stream. Clear Creek post office was established January 11, 1878, with Henry D. Sluter (Sleeter?) postmaster. The office was discontinued January 22, 1879.
CLEAWOX LAKE, Lane County. This lake is about a mile south of Siuslaw River and a mile east of the Pacific Ocean. It has an elevation of 82 feet. The name is obviously an Indian one but the writer has been unable to get its meaning. The USBGN has officially adopted the name Cleawox Lake instead of Cleawok Lake or Buck Lake.
CLEEK, Jefferson County, Cleek post office was established on the Wasco County list May 19, 1881, with Harley A. Belknap first and only postmaster. The office was discontinued February 21, 1883, and the business turned over to Hay Creek. The best available information is to the effect that the office was at the Henry A. Cleek ranch two or three miles west of what was later Grizzly post office. Belknap rented the Cleek place while the Cleeks were at The Dalles for a time. The ranch was one of the points where stage coach horses were changed. The compiler has not been successful in getting the exact location of the place, but it seems to have been on or near Willow Creek.
CLEETWOOD Cove, Crater Lake National Park, Klamath County. This cove was named for the boat from which Will G. Steel sounded Crater Lake for the government in 1886. In a dream Steel fancied he heard the word applied to a golden arrow. The dream was so vivid that he christened his boat Cleetwood.
CLEM, Gilliam County. Clem was named for a well-known Gilliam County character, Clemens Augustus Danneman, who owned a ranch where travelers could get accommodations. He was a native of Germany and a veteran of the Civil War. He was born October 13, 1835. He came to America about 1856, to Oregon 1879, and settled in Gilliam County. Clem is a station on the Condon branch of the Union Pacific Railroad.
CLEO, Coos County. Cleo is a station on the Southern Pacific Company line south of Coos Bay. This station was named by using, backward, the initials of the name of a lumbering concern, Oregon Export Lumber Company, which was then operating nearby.
CLEVELAND, Douglas County. F. M. Good came to Oregon from Kentucky in 1853 and was one of the early settlers near the present community of Cleveland, west of Winchester. He started a sawmill and flour mill, and named his brand of flour for the Cleveland flour mill in Ohio. Thus the place in Oregon received its name indirectly for the city in Ohio. Cleveland post office was established December 16, 1874, with Francis M. Good first postmaster, who was the F. M. Good just mentioned. The office was discontinued January 27, 1923.
CLIFF, Lake County. Cliff post office is said to have been named for a nearby geographic feature, but the compiler has no further information about the name or the bluff. The office was in operation from January, 1906, until June, 1920, in the north part of the Christmas Lake Valley. recgowor the boaker National Par ​
CLIFFORD, Baker County. Clifford was a stage station near the upper reaches of North Fork Burnt River on the stage road from Baker to Canyon City. It was a popular stopping place operated by Mr. and Mrs. Marsh Young. The Youngs were warm personal and political friends of Judge Morton D. Clifford and they named the place in his honor. Clifford post office was established March 10, 1894, with Nellie Clark first postmaster. The office was discontinued effective September 15, 1901, Morton D. Clifford was born in Iowa in 1859 and with his widowed mother came to Grant County in 1871. He attended school at Canyon City and read law under W. Lair Hill at The Dalles. He was a lifelong democrat. He served as district attorney and also as circuit judge until 1904 when he moved with his family to Baker. He had an extensive law practice from which he retired a few years before his death, which occurred in Portland on his 82nd birthday, May 22, 1941. Judge Clifford married Edith Haseltine in 1885.
CLIFTON, Clatsop County, Clifton was a settlement on the south bank of the Columbia River long before the railroad was built and at one time J. W. and V. Cook, pioneer salmon packers, had a cannery there. The name is descriptive of the cliffs above the river. Clifton post office was established January 6, 1874, with Vincent Cook first postmaster. J. H. Middleton, who was living near Waldport in 1927, and who went to Clifton in the fall of 1873, told the compiler that Clifton was the name of the farm of Stephen G. Spear, and that he was of the opinion that Spear named the place Clifton before the property came into the possession of J. W. and V. Cook. Members of the Cook family are also of the belief that Spear named the place before the Cooks became established there.
CLIFTON, Hood River County. This name has been applied to the locality about three miles west of Hood River, where the Columbia River Highway begins to drop down from the top of the well defined cliffs that characterize the place. The highway has an elevation at this point of about 250 feet above the river. Climax, Jackson County. Appeals for information about the name of this place brought an interesting letter from Mrs. Walter F. (Bertha B.) Charley of Central Point, who was postmaster at Climax from 1920 to 1933. In July, 1946, Mrs. Charley wrote in substance as follows: "The proposed post office at Climax was a popular project among the people of upper Antelope Creek valley, and the petition, circulated by John Wyland, was signed by every adult then living there. It seems that the word 'climax' was a favorite with this man, who stated that the climax of his efforts was a tee-total landslide.' He suggested that the post office, when established, be named Climax. The post office was first in the home of Jacob Worlow, Mrs. Worlow being the first postmistress. The office traveled about the community as new postmasters were appointed, and was in at least six different homes. Finally I was appointed in 1920, and was the last postmistress, serving until 1933, when the patrons dwindled to so few that the office was closed. The few people remaining in the settlement drive twenty-five miles to Medford for mail." According to postal records Climax office was established November 10, 1891, with Mary E. Worlow first postmaster. The office was closed August 11, 1933, with all papers to Eagle Point. The place is east of Medford.
CLINE FALLS, Deschutes County. Cline Falls are on the Deschutes ​
River about four miles west of Redmond. The McKenzie Highway crosses the river just south of the falls. They were named for Dr. C. A. Cline (1850-1926), a well-known dentist of Redmond, who owned the falls. Cline Buttes just southwest of the falls received their name from the same source. Dr. Cline died July 19, 1926. For obituary see the Oregonian for July 22, 1926, page 20.
CLOUD CAP, Crater Lake National Park, Klamath County. Cloud Cap is the highest point on the east rim of Crater Lake, and has an elevation of 8070 feet above sea level and 1893 feet above the water of the lake. It received this somewhat fanciful name from J. S. Diller of the USGS, because of its high dome.
CLOVER, Malheur County. Clover post office was established as of April 3, 1882, and was closed January 9, 1883. Josephine M. Reeves was the first postmaster. The compiler has been told that this post office was named for Clover Creek, but no one has come up with a definite locality for the establishment. Clover Creek was named in pioneer days because of the growth of wild clover along its banks.
CLOVER FLAT, Lake County. Clover Flat is a descriptive name for a locality about seven or eight miles airline west of Valley Falls. Clover Flat post office was established December 31, 1914, with Janie N. Bryan first and only postmaster. The office was closed out to Paisley on March 15, 1918.
CLOVERDALE, Tillamook County. Cloverdale was founded and named by Charles Ray (1851-1925), who settled in Tillamook County about 1884 on the farm that subsequently became the site of the community. He established a store, hotel, bank and cheese factory at Cloverdale, and was a charter member of Cloverdale Grange. It is apparent that the name is descriptive of the surroundings, which constitute a fine dairy country. The name was suggested by Cloverdale, California, where Ray occasionally visited.
CLYMER, Marion County. Clymer post office, which operated with one break from May, 1883, to May, 1901, served an area a little to the southeast of Macleay in the vicinity of McAlpin school. The office was named for the first postmaster, Mary Clymer. Coal CREEK, Columbia County, Coal Creek flows into Pebble Creek from the east at a point about three miles south of Vernonia. The stream got its name from some small coal outcrops along its banks. In fact there have been mining operations in some of these outcrops but so far not on a large scale. Coal CREEK, Lincoln County. Coal Creek, which flows into Pacific Ocean a couple of miles north of Yaquina Head, was named in pioneer days because of supposed coal deposits along its course. In October, 1945, Andrew L. Porter of Newport told the writer that this coal-like mineral was just large pieces of shale. He tried to burn some without success. In earlier days this stream was on the Siletz Indian Reservation and could not be prospected. Some people thought they were being deprived of a good fuel supply until the true nature of the rock was determined. Coal Point, Curry County. This point is about three miles south of Port Orford and just north of Humbug Mountain. It is immediately north of Brush Creek. It is believed that Coal Point is the one mentioned by George Davidson in the United States Coast Survey Coast Pilot for ​
COALBANK Soune could find none aftene reported existenc 1869, which he says was named because of the reported existence of coal in the vicinity, but he could find none after careful examination.
COALBANK SLOUGH, Coos County. This slough is a branch of Coos Bay. It received its name in pioneer days. Upon its waters a great deal of coal was taken out of the coal mines in light craft and in sea-going boats.
COALCA, Clackamas County. Coalca is a station on the Southern Pacific Company railroad about a mile north of New Era. It was named for an Oregon Indian celebrity. East of the station, and up on the side hill above the highway, is a natural rock formation called Coalcas Pillar. This pillar is a rock spire with a peculiar knob or capstone at the top. In earlier days the railroad station at or near this point was called Rock Island for the natural feature in the Willamette River, but due to confusion with other places of the same name, the railroad company made a change in its official list.
COALEDO, Coos County. Coaledo was named because of a coal lead or vein. The place is on Beaver Slough a few miles northwest of Coquille. George Bennett, in OHQ, volume XXVIII, page 346, says a man named Vandenburg was the first settler in the locality. Postal records for 1875 show Coaledo post office, established in that year.
COALMINE CREEK, Douglas and Jackson counties. Coalmine Creek flows south across the county boundary in township 31 south, range 1 east and drains into Sugarpine Creek. It got its name because of the discovery on its banks of some black rock that appeared to be coal. However, subsequent investigation showed that the substance was not coal. See also under KETTLE CREEK. A deer lick at the junction of Sugarpine and Coalmine creeks is called Coalmine Lick. Coast FORK, Lane County. Coast Fork post office, named for Coast Fork Willamette River, was established December 28, 1867, with George W. Rinehart postmaster. The office was closed October 1, 1872. Gill's map of Oregon of 1874 shows the place on the railroad about four miles south of Creswell, but the railroad was not built when the office was established, so the legend on the map may be for a later railroad station and not for the post office as originally established. Local tradition is to the effect that the post office was a little east of the present site of Creswell. Coast FORK WILLAMETTE RIVER, Lane County. This is the smallest of the three streams that combine in the neighborhood of Eugene to form Willamette River. The other two are McKenzie River (formerly McKenzie Fork) and Middle Fork. Coast Fork was so named because it headed more nearly toward the coast than did the other two. It has been so called since pioneer days. . Coast RANGE. Mountains close to the sea are characteristic of almost the entire eastern shores of the Pacific Ocean. From Bering Sea to Cape Horn ranges of varying heights are constantly visible from the ocean, and Oregon is no exception to the rule. The entry made by Meriwether Lewis in his diary for April 1, 1806, shows that he perceived quite clearly that the mountains along the coast were separated from the Cascade Range by a valley drained by a large river. However, the term Coast Range does not seem to have been used by early explorers in the Oregon country, and the name was doubtless developed by the pioneer settlers. Between the Columbia River and the Siuslaw River the Coast ​
Range is rather well defined, particularly west of the Willamette Valley, but from the Siuslaw south, the Coast Range gradually merges with spurs from the Cascade Range until finally both are consolidated with the Klamath Mountains, whose name is used by geologists in referring to the group near the Oregon-California line, part of which is popularly referred to as the Siskiyou Mountains. The Coast Range of Oregon, is however, geologically, quite independent both of the Cascade Range and of the Klamath Mountains, and its dividing line with the latter is considered by geologists to be at or near Rogue River. However, government map makers use the name Coast Range continuously from Oregon into California, and do not employ the term Klamath Mountains. Interesting information about these mountain groups will be found in
USGS Bulletins 196 and 546 by Dr. J. S. Diller. The style Coast Range has been officially adopted by the USBGN. The Coast Range is an irregular group of maturely dissected hills and peaks, and while the main divide is generally parallel to and about 30 miles from the coast, this divide is frequently not in line with the highest summits. From the Columbia River south to Rogue River there are several important peaks. The best available elevations for these peaks and authority therefor are as follows:
ALTITUDE Marys Peak (USC&GS) ............4097
PEAK IN FEET Table Mountain (USGS) ........2804 Saddle Mountain (USE) ..........3283 Grass Mountain (USC&GS) ....3612 Onion Peak (USE) ..................3058 Prairie Peak (USE) .................3392 Neahkahnie Mountain Roman Nose Mountain (USC&GS) ...........................1795 (USGS) ......... ...................2856 Mount Hebo (USC&GS) ........3153 Kenyon Mountain Euchre Mountain (USGS) ......2446 (USC&GS) ..3266 Bald Mountain (USE) ............3246 Mount Bolivar (USC&GS) ......4297 Mount Bolivar is the highest peak in the Oregon Coast Range north of Rogue River. There are higher peaks in the Oregon Coast Range south of Rogue River. The Columbia River cuts the Coast Range to water level. The next stream to find its way through the Coast Range is the Nehalem, which pursues a winding course, first east, then north, and finally west and southwest until it reaches the ocean. In the north part of the range the highest summits lie in a well defined line beginning at Clatsop Crest on the Columbia River, passing through Saddle Mountain and Neahkahnie Mountain. South of the Nehalem and north of the Siuslaw there is a succession of peaks and mountains most of which are west of the drainage divide. The South Yamhill River cuts deeply into the Coast Range from the Willamette Valley with a resultant pass to the ocean of but little over 700 feet. Yaquina River does the same, except from the west. The Siuslaw River has also cut a pass below 500 feet, and the Umpqua River likewise.
COBURG, Lane County. Coburg is said to bear the name of a wellknown Lane County stallion. A blacksmith named Thomas Kane operated a smithy where Coburg is now situated and because the horse was brought to his shop to be shod, Kane applied the name to the incipient community. This information was furnished to the writer by Lucien Ward, a prominent resident of the neighborhood.
COBURG HILLS, Lane County. These hills are a spur of the Cascade ........... ​
Range. They lie between the Willamette Valley and the Mohawk River. McKenzie River swings around their southern end. They have an extreme elevation of over 3000 feet. Coburg Hills take their name from the town of Coburg just to the west.
COCHRAN, Washington County. Cochran post office and railroad station were named for Judge Joseph W. Cochran and J. Henry Cochran, brothers, of Ashland, Wisconsin, who owned a large tract of timber in the locality.
COCHRAN CREEK, Linn County, Cochran Creek is a stream northwest of Brownsville. It flows into Butte Creek north of Saddle Butte. William Cochran was a pioneer landowner on the upper part of this stream, and it was named for him.
COE GLACIER, Hood River County. This is one of the important glaciers on the north slope of Mount Hood and has its source near the top of the mountain. It lies east of Pulpit Rock, and Coe Branch flows northeast from its base. It was named for Captain Henry Coe, a pioneer resident of the Hood River Valley, who with several others, operated a stage line to the mountain.
COFFEE CREEK, Douglas County. This stream flows into South Umpqua River from the north about 15 miles east of Myrtle Creek. Walling in History of Southern Oregon, page 442, says that Coffee Creek was named by miners in 1858 because of some joke about a coffee pot, but gives no further details.
COFFEE ISLAND, Marion County. Coffee Island is in the Willamette River southwest of St. Paul. It was named for the Coffee family, early settlers on the east bank of the river.
COFFEEPOT CREEK, Lane County. This stream flows into Middle Fork Willamette River south of Oakridge. According to C. B. McFarland of the Forest Service the creek was named in pioneer days. A coffeepot fell out of an immigrant's wagon and was run over by a wheel and ruined. John H. Hill, an early resident of the vicinity, vouched for the story.
COFFIN BUTTE, Benton County. Coffin Butte lies about three miles southwest of Suver, and just west of the Pacific Highway West. It has an elevation of 732 feet. Viewed from the southwest, this hill has a remarkable resemblance to a coffin, hence the name applied.
COFFIN Rock, Columbia County, Coffin Rock is in the Columbia River a little more than a mile north of Goble. It is so called because it was an Indian burial place. Broughton mentions it in his report on October 28, 1792. "Mr. Broughton continued to proceed against the stream, and soon passed a small rocky islet, about 20 feet above the surface of the water. Several canoes covered the top of the islet, in which dead bodies were deposited." The first use of the name Coffin Rock that the compiler has seen is in Coues' Henry-Thompson Journals, volume II, page 796, under date of January 11, 1814. This islet should not be confused with Mount Coffin, a point on the Washington shore west of Longview.
COGSWELL CREEK, Lake County. This stream flows westward into Goose Lake at a point about ten miles south of Lakeview. Members of the Cogswell family were pioneer settlers in Goose Lake Valley as early as 1869, and the stream was named for M. Cogswell or one of his relatives. Cold SPRINGS, Umatilla County. Cold Springs railroad station, Cold Springs Wash, Cold Springs Reservoir and Cold Springs Canyon are all ​well-known geographic names in northwest Umatilla County. The station is on the Union Pacific Railroad on the south bank of Columbia River about ten miles east of Umatilla. The names are all descriptive. A post office named Arroyo was established in these parts on July 15, 1878, with Clinton V. B. Reeder postmaster. The name of the office was changed to Cold Springs on April 2, 1880, with Andrew C. Bryan postmaster. This office was short lived, and was closed probably in 1883. Arroyo is a Spanish word meaning rivulet or small stream, and in western United States the term is frequently used for intermittent creeks or dry watercourses. The name Arroyo was doubtless suggested by Cold Springs Wash.
COLEBROOK BUTTE, Curry County. This butte has an elevation of 2046 feet and is about ten miles south of Port Orford and two miles east of the Pacific Ocean. Euchre Creek flows around its eastern and southern slopes. It was named for a pioneer settler, F. W. Colebrook, who located a homestead nearby about 1860. Colebrook was born in Scotland October 13, 1816, and came to Oregon about 1858. He died May 21, 1889.
COLEMAN CREEK, Jackson County. Coleman Creek drains an area south of Medford. It bears the name of M. H. Coleman, a pioneer of 1853, who was the first settler on the stream.
COLEMAN MOUNTAIN, Harney County. This mountain and a nearby creek were named for a stockman who lived in that vicinity. These features are about 35 miles east of Burns.
COLES VALLEY, Douglas County. This valley was named for Dr. James Cole, the first settler therein. It is along the Umpqua River northwest of Roseburg. Dr. Cole established his home in the valley in 1851. See University of Oregon Extension Monitor for September, 1924. For information about the Cole family, see story by Fred Lockley in the Oregon Journal, August 17, 1937.
COLESTIN, Jackson County. The Coles were pioneer settlers in the southern part of the county. Steel says that Colestin was named for Rufus Cole in 1885, the one who then owned the nearby springs.
COLLARD LAKE, Lane County. This lake is about three miles north of Florence. It was named for Roy L. Collard, who took up a homestead near the lake.
COLLEGE CREEK, Wallowa County. College Creek is a short tributary of Imnaha River in the eastern part of the county. A. N. Adams, better known as Sam, named this stream. He was a Civil War veteran, and pioneer of Wallowa Valley. He applied the name after a school had been established nearby. He was a rancher.
COLLEGE CREST, Lane County. In the 1850s there was an educational institution in Lane County called Columbia College. It was situated in the south part of Eugene and the name of the institution has been perpetuated in a geographic name College Crest. This term is applied to an upland, most of which is in section 6, township 18 south, range 3 west. College Crest is not near the University of Oregon and was not named for that institution. In 1909 J. O. Story and Wesley Whitbeck filed a plat for College Crest but whether they originated the name the compiler does not know. About that time Fred S. Williams, Jr., settled in the area and in 1913 applied for a post office to be called College Crest. This office was duly established June 13, 1913, and Williams was appointed postmaster, but he asserted that he had never received any notice from the Post Office Department and did not know that the office had been es​tablished. Williams operated a neighborhood store and he planned to run the post office in connection with this store. The little store which was to have been the post office was situated at the northwest corner of what is now Friendly Avenue and Wood Avenue in Eugene. At one time there was a street car waiting station at this point,
COLLIER CREEK, Curry and Josephine counties. This stream, now part of the boundary line between the two counties, was named for an early resident, and old maps and records show it Cole Collier Creek. The first part of the name is now omitted.
COLLIER GLACIER, Lane County. Collier Glacier heads on the west side of North Sister and drains into White Branch. It is the largest glacier in the Three Sisters region and was named for Professor George H. Collier of the University of Oregon, who made an ascent of the Three Sisters in 1880. Professor Collier was a prominent early-day instructor, and came to Oregon from Ohio in 1868. His son, Dr. Arthur J. Collier, was also an instructor at the University of Oregon and a well-known geologist.
COLLINGS MOUNTAIN, Jackson County, This mountain is in the southwest part of the county, and has been shown at times as Collins Mountain. The Forest Service informs the compiler that it was named for a local resident named Collings, and that Collins is wrong.
COLORADO LAKE, Linn County. This lake, which has an elevation of 195 feet, lies on the south bank of the Willamette River a few miles east of Corvallis. The compiler has been unable to obtain information as to why this lake is called Colorado Lake. Colson, Klamath County. Colson post office was given the family name of the first and only postmaster, Mary E. Colson. The office operated from March to December, 1895. It was in the northwest corner, probably in section 7, of township 40 south, range 10 east. An old map shows this post office very close to the banks of Lost River, at a point seven or eight miles northwest of Merrill.
COLTON, Clackamas County. Colton is situated on Mill Creek at an elevation of 706 feet. It was named about 1892. Two local residents, Joshua Gorbett and a man named Cole each wished to name it for the other, but the Post Office Department objected to Gorbett because it was too much like Corbett, in Multnomah County. As a result, Colton was selected.
COLUMBIA City, Columbia County. This city, just north of St. Helens, was founded in 1867 by Jacob and Joseph Caples. Columbia City was ambitious to become the terminus of Ben Holladay's Willamette Valley railroad in 1870, at the time Portland became the terminus of the west side line with a bonus of $100,000. The prospective community was named for the Columbia River, but the expected growth has not materialized. Columbia City post office was established August 16, 1871.
COLUMBIA COUNTY. This county was created January 16, 1854, by the territorial legislature. It comprised the northeastern part of Washington (Twality) County as it was after Clatsop County had been created. It was named for the Columbia River, its northern and eastern boundary, and St. Helens is its county seat. The land area of Columbia County is 646 square miles (Bureau of the Census).
COLUMBÍA River, northern boundary of Oregon. Columbia is one of the most abundantly used geographic names in America. Aside from the beauty of the word, its history reflects efforts to honor the achievements ​of Christopher Columbus. Its greatest use in the Pacific Northwest is as the name of the great river. Captain Robert Gray, in the American vessel Columbia, on May 11, 1792, at 8 a, m. sailed through the breakers and at 1 p. m. anchored in the river ten miles from its mouth. On May 19, Gray gave his ship's name to the river. (United States Public Documents, Serial Number 351, House of Representatives Documents 101.) This was the American discovery and naming of the river. Prior to this, the river's existence had been suspected and other names had been suggested. In 1766-1767, Jonathan Carver, while exploring among the Indians of Minnesota, wrote about a great river of the West and called it Oregon, a word which he may have stolen. On August 17, 1775, Bruno Heceta, Spanish explorer, noted the indications of a river there. He called the entrance Bahia de la Asuncion, the northern point Cabo San Roque and the southern point Cabo Frondoso. Later Spanish charts showed the entrance as Ensenada de Heceta and the surmised river as San Roque. In 1788 John Meares, English explorer and fur trader, sought for and denied the existence of the Spanish river Saint Roc. He called the Spaniard's San Roque Cape Disappointment and the entrance he changed from Bahia de la Asuncion or Ensenada de Heceta to Deception Bay. That was the situation when Captain Gray made his discovery. In 1793, Alexander Mackenzie, of the North West Company of Montreal, made his memorable journey to the western coast. He came upon a large river which he said the Indians called Tacootche-Tesse. This afterwards turned out to be Fraser River, but for a time it was confused with the Columbia. Captain Meriwether Lewis mapped it as a northern branch of the Columbia, spelling it Tacoutche. William Cullen Bryant in his great poem Thanatopsis, 1817, revived and gave wide circulation to Oregon as the name of the river. Another literary name was Great River of the West, which, of course, did not disturb Columbia as a geographic term. Oregon Historical Quarterly, volume XXII, December, 1921, contains the "Log of the Columbia" by John Boit. This furnishes many interesting details of the discovery of the mouth of the Columbia River by one who was there at the time. The first examination of the Columbia River for the U. S. Coast Survey was made in 1850 by Lieut.-Commanding Wm. P. McArthur, U. S. N. For account of this survey and McArthur's comments on the Columbia River see OHQ, volume XVI, No. 3, September, 1915, which contains an article by Lewis A. McArthur. This article, among other things, contains the first hydrographic notice ever published by the Coast Survey for the Pacific Coast. It is entitled No. 3 Columbia River, Oregon, and gives sailing directions for entering the Columbia River as far as the harbor at Astoria by Lieut.-Commanding Wm. P. McArthur, U. S. N., assistant in the Coast Survey.
Corvin CREEK, Morrow and Wheeler counties. This stream heads in the extreme northeast of Wheeler County and flows northeast into Morrow County, where it joins Porter Creek. Its waters eventually find their way into North Fork John Day River. Colvin Creek bears the name of John Colvin, who had a homestead on the stream about a half mile east of what is now the Heppner-Spray Highway and about 18 miles south of Hardman. The spelling Colivin is wrong.
COMBS FLAT, Crook County. On October 18, 1947, Remey Cox of Prineville wrote as follows: "Combs Flat is a benchland area embracing most of sections 13 and 36, township 15 south, range 17 east. It was ema we SC ​
named because it was the home ranch of James Combs, whose lands extended north to the area now in the Ochoco Irrigation district reservoir. Norval Powell, scion of another pioneer Crook County family, now occupies the shrunken remnant of the Combs ranch, and there is a county road debouching from our well-known Ochoco Highway a few miles east of Prineville and connecting with the Crooked River Highway below Post." James Parker Combs was born in Indiana and was married to Jane Dyer of that state. The Combs came to Oregon in 1852 and settled first near Lebanon, moving in 1870 to what was later Crook County, For biographical information about several members of the family, see Crook County News of Prineville, August 4, 1930, and Prineville Central Oregonian, March 20, 1947. The name of the flat is sometimes spelled Coombs, which is wrong.
COMER, Grant County, Comer post office was near the junction of Comer Gulch and Dixie Creek, about eight miles north of Prairie City. It was named for R. H. J. Comer, Grant County pioneer printer and mining man, who lived on Dixie Creek and in Prairie City for many years. According to a letter of Mrs. Louise King, printed in the Canyon City Eagle, March 7, 1947, Comer came from Canada. He was an old time printer and printed the seven scattering numbers of The City Jour. nal, which appeared in Canyon City in 1868 and 1869. It is probable that he wrote most of the contents of the little sheets. Comer's main interest was in mining, and on September 6, 1869, he published the last issue of the Journal, which included the following paragraph: "With this issue we (i. e. the typo) withdraw from public life to more remunerative occupation of again swinging the pick and shovel. To a majority a newspaper is a very easy thing to run, but we cannot see it, so the outside world will remain in ignorance of the advantages of this section of Oregon." Comer is said to have been blown to bits many years ago in Prairie City by mine caps. Comer post office was established May 27, 1896, with Henry A. Hyde first postmaster. The compiler does not know when the office was closed.
COMPANY HOLLOW, Wasco County, Company Hollow is a little vale in section 12, township 1 north, range 14 east, about three miles south of Fairbanks School. In February 1949, Judge Fred W. Wilson of The Dalles wrote the compiler as follows: "Company Hollow got that name because prior to 1863 when J. C. Ainsworth and the Oregon Steam Navigation Company completed the portage railroad from The Dalles to Celilo, passengers, mail and freight had to be hauled by teams and the company used this hollow and surrounding country for pasturing its horses." Company Hollow was well known for its fine stand of bunchgrass. Wasco County has a road in this locality officially called Company Hollow road. English post office was near this hollow.
COMSTOCK, Douglas County. This station on the Southern Pacific Company line in the north part of the county was named for James J. Comstock, an early day sawmill operator.
CONANT BASIN, Crook County. Conant Basin and Conant Creek are on the north slopes of Maury Mountains southeast of Prineville. They bear the name of Ed G. Conant, pioneer stockman of the locality. See the Oregonian, September 18, 1927, section V, page 1. Conant was born in Cuba, but not of Cuban blood. He settled in Crook County in Novemher, 1869, and raised horses until his death in the '90s. ​
Clark Living dehibald Mall
CONCOMLY, Marion County. This station on the Oregon Electric railway about three miles southwest of Gervais is named for Chief Concomly head of the Chinook tribe, who is described in Irving's Astoria, and also in Alexander Henry's journal. He died in 1830, and his grave was visited by Wilkes in 1841. For references to Chief Comcomly see Scott's History of the Oregon Country, volume II, page 139. The spelling used by the railway company is a variation of the original name. Lewis and Clark met Concomly on November 20, 1805, and gave him medals and a flag. Irving describes him in a decidedly humorous vein. His daughter married Archibald McDonald of the Hudson's Bay Company and their son Ranald McDonald is an interesting figure in northwest history. Ranald MacDonald, 1824-1894, edited by Lewis and Murakami, and published in 1923 by the Eastern Washington State Historical Society, contains much interesting information about Concomly and his family, and also about McDonald's visit to Japan in 1848-49, which is of great historic interest. An editorial in the Oregonian for November 29, 1893, treats of McDonald's pretensions to the Chinook throne.
CONDON, Gilliam County. Condon is the county seat of Gilliam County, and has an elevation of 2844 feet. It is an important trading center and is on the John Day Highway, and is also the southern terminus of the Condon branch of the Union Pacific Railroad. About 1893 a man named Potter owned a homestead just north of Thirty-mile Creek, upon which there was a fine spring. He platted the land around the spring, but became involved in financial difficulties, and the land became the property of Condon and Cornish of Arlington. Condon and Cornish sold lots in the townsite, and in 1884 David B. Trimble took the necessary steps to secure a post office, and was appointed the first postmaster. Trimble suggested the name Condon, which was adopted by the department. The office was established July 10, 1884. Harvey C. Condon, for whom the place was named, was a practicing lawyer and located in Arlington, or as it was then known, Alkali, about 1882, and was a member of the firm of Condon and Cornish. He was the son of Judge J. B. Condon, a pioneer jurist of eastern Oregon, and the nephew of Dr. Thomas Condon, Oregon's great geologist. H. C. Condon lived in the state of Washington during the latter part of his life, and died at Vaughn, Washington, June 21, 1931.
CONDON BUTTE, Lane County. This butte is about five miles northwest of North Sister and one mile east of the McKenzie Highway. It was named in 1924 by Professor Edwin T. Hodge of the University of Oregon in honor of Dr. Thomas Condon (1822-1907), distinguished geologist and scientist, and for many years a member of the faculty of the University of Oregon. Dr. Condon's discoveries of the prehistoric horse had a large influence on the conclusions of scientists and went far to establish evolutionary theories. The richest field of his discoveries was in the John Day Valley. For details concerning his life and work see Scott's History of the Oregon Country, volume III, page 169, and McCornack's Thomas Condon. Dr. John C. Merriam of the Carnegie Institution chose the John Day fossil bed as the scene of intensive investigations looking toward the development of Dr. Condon's discoveries.
CONNLEY, Lake County. Connley post office and Connley Hills between Fort Rock and Silver Lake were named for a local family. The compiler has seen the name spelled in other ways, but Connley was the ​
for John 2.out four miles Conser style used by postal officials. Connley post office was established April 18, 1912, with Warren B. Graham first of three postmasters. The office was closed out to Fort Rock on July 31, 1920.
CONSER, Linn County. Conser is a station on the Oregon Electric Railway about four miles north of Albany. This station was named for John A. Conser, who owned land nearby. He was the son of Jacob Conser, a pioneer of 1848.
CONTORTA POINT, Klamath County. This point is on the east shore of Crescent Lake. It was named in 1925 by F. W. Cleator of the Forest Service because of the abundance nearby of lodgepole pine, Pinus contorta.
CONYERS CREEK, Columbia County. Conyers Creek drains an area south of Clatskanie and flows into Clatskanie River at Clatskanie. It bears the name of the Conyers family, several members of which have been prominent residents of the area and have occupied important posts both in public affairs and in business. Cook CREEK, Tillamook County. S. M. Batterson, for many years a resident of the lower Nehalem Valley, informed George B. McLeod of Portland in August, 1927, that this stream was named for a local character, Indian Cook, who settled near the mouth of the creek in 1877 or 1878. Cook is said to have been a Cherokee, and there was some feeling against him on the part of the Tillamooks, although he married a Tillamook woman. Cook was a man of fine character, and was murdered by his enemies, not far from the present site of Nehalem. Cook SLOUGH, Clatsop County. This is a small tidal slough that joins Youngs Bay. It is situated a short distance east of Miles Crossing. Cook Slough takes its name from Geo. W. Cook, who was an early settler on land nearby. He was born in Vermont in 1818 and came to Oregon in 1850.
COOMBS CANYON, Umatilla County. This canyon drains into Umatilla River from the south, just west of Rieth. According to James H. Raley of Pendleton, it bears the name of Calvin Coombs, who settled in the vicinity in the late '70s. The name Comas Canyon as applied to this canyon is wrong.
COOPER LAKE, Clackamas County. This small lake is about four miles north of Clackamas Lake. T. H. Sherrard of the Forest Service informed the compiler that it was named for Warren Cooper, now deceased. Cooper, the son of David C. Cooper for whom Cooper Spur was named, was for several years district ranger for the Forest Service at Parkdale.
COOPER MOUNTAIN, Washington County. This is a prominent hill about four miles southwest of Beaverton and has an elevation of 794 feet. It was named for Perry Cooper who was born in Ohio in 1825 and was a pioneer of Oregon. He settled on the slopes of this mountain in March, 1853.
COOPER SPUR, Hood River County. David C. Cooper was an early settler in Hood River Valley, and lived not far from the present site of Mount Hood post office. He had a camping place on the east slope of Mount Hood and the spur was named for him. This was about 1886. Cooper Spur separates Eliot Glacier from Newton Clark Glacier.
COOPEY FALLS, Multnomah County. Coopey Falls were named for Charles Coopey, for many years a well-known tailor in Portland. Coopey was a native of England. He owned land adjacent to the falls that bear his name.
BERKELEY LIBRARY ​
Coos Bay, Coos County. As the result of votes at two city elections held November 7 and December 28, 1944, the name of the community Marshfield was changed to Coos Bay, thus doing away with a geographic title that had been in use for ninety years. For the history of the name Marshfield, see under that heading. The new name was of course taken from the natural feature, Coos Bay. For comments on the origin of the name Coos, see under Coos COUNTY. Coos City, Coos County. Coos City was one of the early post offices of Coos County and it was named for the county or the bay. It was established June 25, 1873, with Henry A. Coston first postmaster. The office continued in service until March 18, 1884. It was situated on Isthmus Slough about five miles south of Marshfield as it was then known. There is little left of the community, but the name is retained by the Coos City bridge. An important road turned eastward at this point and made its way to Roseburg. Coos County. Coos County was created December 22, 1853, by the territorial legislature. It was originally formed from the west parts of Umpqua and Jackson counties. Coos is an Indian name of a native tribe whose habitat was the vicinity of Coos Bay. The name is first mentioned by Lewis and Clark, who spell it Cook-koo-oose (Thwaites' Original Journals, volume VI, page 117). The explorers heard the name among the Clatsop Indians. Alexander R. McLeod in his journal of 1828 gives the name Cahoose; Slacum, in his report of 1837, gives the name of Coos River Cowis; Wilkes, in Western America, spells it Cowes. The spelling has been variously Koo'as, Kowes, Koos, Coose, and finally Coos. For description of Coos Bay, see the Oregonian, June 11, 1873, article signed "Northwest." For description of the Oregon coast south of Coos Bay, by the same writer, ibid., July 9, 1873. One Indian meaning of Coos is "lake," another, "place of pines" ibid., August 26, 1902, page 12. Perry B. Marple, who began exploiting Coos Bay in 1853, spelled the word Coose, and said it was an Indian perversion of the English word coast, meaning a place where ships can land. See his advertisement, ibid., January 7, 1854. Another version is that the Indian word was made to resemble the name of a county in New Hampshire (ibid., December 9, 1890, page 6). The Coos Indians were of the Kusan family, formerly living at Coos Bay. Lewis and Clark estimated their population at 1500 in 1805. The name is often used as synonymous with the family name. Hale, in U. S. Exploring Expedition, Ethnography and Philology, 1846, page 221, gives the name as Kwokwoos and Kaus; Parrish, in Indian Affairs Report for 1854, page 495, gives Co-ose. Interesting details of the early history of southwestern Oregon may be found in Orvil Dodge's Pioneer History of Coos and Curry Counties, published in Salem in 1898. Coos County has a land area of 1611 square miles. In 1844 Duflot de Mofras got off the prize pun in the history of Oregon geographic names when he published his work Exploration du Territoire de l'Oregon. He called Coos River la riviere aux Vaches, or Cows River, apparently after talking to some of the Scots employed by the Hudson's Bay Company. Coos HEAD, Coos County. Coos Head is the point on the south side of the entrance to Coos Bay. It extends northward from Cape Arago, but is much lower than the main part of the cape. Between Coos Head and the west point of Cape Arago is the Cape Arago Lighthouse, a well-known landmark. The locality of this lighthouse is sometimes called ​
e third pas c. Roffice wasand was fice or Gregory Point, perpetuating after a fashion the name Cape Gregory, which was originally applied by Captain James Cook in 1778. See under
CAPE ARAGO. Coos RIVER, Coos County. Coos River, named for the stream nearby, was the third post office in Coos County. It was established March 7, 1863, with Amos C. Rogers first postmaster. This office was closed September 20, 1864. The office was opened again February 10, 1873, with Frank W. Bridges postmaster and was closed September 24, 1875. Available maps show the location of this office on Coos River near the mouth of the Millicoma. It may have been in a different locality the first time, but probably not far away. Rogers and Bridges were wellknown pioneer settlers in the locality. CoOSTON, Coos County. Cooston is on the east shore of Coos Bay and the origin of the name is the same as that of Coos County. Cooston post office was established May 13, 1908, and the first postmaster was William E. Homme, who named the place.
COPELAND CREEK, Jackson and Klamath counties. Copeland Creek was named for Hiram Copeland of Fort Klamath. The stream rises west of Crater Lake and flows into Rogue River.
COPPER, Jackson County. Copper is the name of a locality on Applegate River, near the mouth of Carberry Creek and about a mile north of the Oregon-California line. It got its name from the copper mining activity in the vicinity, especially at the Blue Ledge mine just over the line in California. The post office was established in November, 1924, with Mrs. Mamie Winningham first postmaster. The office was discontinued in May, 1932.
COPPER, Wallowa County. A post office with the name Copper was established January 5, 1904, with Anna Bigham postmaster. It was in operation until May 3, 1907, at which time the office was closed and all papers sent to White Bird, Idaho, the most convenient nearby office. Copper post office was in section 14, township 3 north, range 50 east, and was established to serve some copper mine claims in the vicinity. There is a pinnacle called Copper Mountain in the locality and also a Copper Creek flowing into Snake River. The post office was about a half mile west of Snake River.
COPPERFIELD, Baker County. Copperfield is on the west bank of Snake River. The place has had a meteoric career. About 1900 there were many prospectors in the place and it was called Copper Camp, because of the character of the nearby ore. Soon after this the community was definitely named Copperfield, and by 1910 there were about 1000 inhabitants, the increase in population being due to the digging of two tunnels by the railroad company and by the predecessor of the Idaho Power Company, near the Oxbow. In 1914 Copperfield became really famous when Governor Oswald West sent his secretary, Miss Fern Hobbs, double armed with determination and a signed declaration of martial law, to clean up the morals of the place. The community was trying to recover from the struggle between Miss Hobbs and the Power of Darkness, when fire swept away most of the buildings, so it was impossible to determine if Righteousness had prevailed. Two more fires have made Copperfield a thing of the past.
COQUILLE, Coos County. This name is applied to a city, a point and a river in Coos County, south of Coos Bay. Coquille is a word of UC PERKELEY LIBRARY ​
berpages 73. the form ston's map unknown origin, probably Indian, but with French spelling. The French word means a shell. Scoquel appears in the Oregonian, January 7, 1854, in an advertisement of the Coose Bay Company. The name is there said to be Indian for "eel." Coquette appears on a map of John B. Preston, surveyor-general of Oregon, 1851, probably intended for Coquelle. It appears Coquille in Preston's map of 1856. Canadian-French fur traders may have left the form of name among the Indians. See OHQ, volume
XIX, pages 73-74, by Leslie M. Scott, and also the Oregonian for September 3, 1907, where Harvey W. Scott makes some comments on the pronunciation of the name. Captain William Tichenor in Pioneer History of Coos and Curry Counties, page 29, says the Indian name of this stream was Nes-sa-til-cut, but gives no further information. In an article in the Coos Bay Times, November 29, 1943, Mary M. Randleman, Coos County pioneer, says the word is of Indian origin and cites a number of early uses of the style Coquelle and Coquel. The Handbook of American Indians, volume I, page 871, lists the Mishikhwutmetunne Indians, who lived along the Coquille, and says that the Chetco names for some of these Indians was Ku-kwil tunne, and Kiguel is a form listed as being used as early as 1846. This seems to indicate an Indian origin of the name. On October 25, 1938, the Oregonian printed on its editorial page an interesting letter from Sam Van Pelt, an aged Indian living at Brookings, who recounted the difficulties of spelling Indian names with "English" letters. "Coquilth" was the result of his efforts to produce the correct sound, but no interpretation of the word was furnished. The letter and accompanying editorial are well worth reading. Interesting information about the founding of the town of Coquille is given in an article in Coquille Valley Sentinel for November 20, 1941. In Coos County there have for many years been spirited differences of opinion about the pronunciation of the name Coquille. See editorial in the Oregonian, October 17, 1938, as well as editorial mentioned above.
COQUILLE Point, Lincoln County. Coquille Point is on the east shore of Yaquina Bay about a half mile north of Yaquina community. The place is said to have been named for some Indian families who lived there many years ago and were supposed to have been members of the Coquille tribe of Coos County. The writer does not know how they became settled at Yaquina Bay.
CORBETT, Multnomah County. This post office and station on the Union Pacific Railroad, as well as Corbett Heights upon the Columbia River Highway above, were named for Senator Henry Winslow Corbett, one of Oregon's prominent pioneer citizens, for many years a resident of Portland. Mr. Corbett owned a farm near the post office. For a concise biography of Mr. Corbett, see Carey's History of Oregon, volume II, page 305. Scott's History of the Oregon Country has biographical information about Senator Corbett in volume I, pages 108 and 280, and Harvey W. Scott's tribute, volume V, page 183.
CORBIN, Curry County. Walter F. Riley wrote the compiler from San Jose, California, in March, 1947, that Corbin was named for a man interested in the operations of a sawmill in the locality. Corbin was on Mussel Creek, about fifteen miles south of Port Orford, and when the
USGS map of the Port Orford quadrangle was made in 1897-98, the place was about a mile east of the old coast road between Port Orford and Gold Beach. Corbin post office was established May 8, 1901, with li ​
Bendhe railroad, war together Richard D. Jones postmaster. The office was discontinued in January, 1910, and had four different postmasters, so that it may have been moved from time to time.
CORD, Malheur County. Cord was a rural office on Duck Creek on the west edge of the county about twenty-five miles southeast of Venator in Harney County. Cord post office was established April 13, 1897, with Thomas M. Seaweard first postmaster. The office, which was named in compliment to Mrs. Cordelia Seaweard, wife of the postmaster, was closed December 31, 1917, with all papers to Mooreville. Cordes, Coos County. For a number of years the Southern Pacific Company maintained a railroad station with the name Coos near the north shore of Coos Bay and about two and a half miles north of North Bend. In the latter part of 1944 the name of the city of Marshfield, also on the railroad, was changed to Coos Bay. The similarity of names of two stations so near together was unsatisfactory and as a result the company changed the name of Coos siding to Cordes. Cordes was the name of a family that had deeded part of the right of way at this point when the railroad was built.
CORNELIUS, Washington County. Cornelius was named for Colonel T. R. Cornelius, a pioneer of 1845. He was the son of Benjamin Cornelius, who with his family emigrated to Oregon during that year as a member of the Meek party. The family settled on Tualatin Plains. Colonel Cornelius served in the Cayuse War of 1847-48, and the Yakima War of 1855-56. He served twenty years in the Oregon legislature, and in 1861 raised a regiment of volunteer cavalry. He was a merchant and also for a time ran a sawmill. Colonel Cornelius was born in November, 1827, and died June 24, 1899. The town of Cornelius is between Hillsboro and Forest Grove and has an elevation of 175 feet. Cornelius post office was established December 18, 1871.
CORNUCOPIA, Baker County. This name is derived from Latin words meaning "horn of plenty" and the word is frequently applied to mines and other enterprises where there are large hopes of success. In 1885 mines were discovered on the southern slopes of the Wallowa Mountains in Baker County, and among the prospectors were several who came from Cornucopia, Nevada, who suggested that name for the new camp.
CORRAL BASIN, Wallowa County. Corral Basin is in the northwest corner of township 3 south, range 43 east. It was named because Standley and Sturgill built some sheep corrals there, made of heavy poles and logs. This was in the late '80s.
CORRAL CREEK, Clackamas County, Corral Creek drains the east slope of Parrett Mountain and flows into the Willamette River one mile west of Wilsonville. There are many other Corral creeks in Oregon, especially east of the Cascade Range. The word was originally Spanish and meant an inclosure or pen for stock. It was possibly from the same source as the South African Dutch word kraal. There were two reasons for describing creeks with this word. The first was that stockmen built their corrals with streams running through them as a matter of convenience. In the second place there were many valleys, especially in eastern Oregon, where rock formations produced natural corrals, with water running through them.
CORRAL CREEK, Wallowa County. Corral Creek flows into Imnaha River in township 3 north, range 48 east. J. H. Horner of Enterprise
PERKELEY LIBRARY ​
told the compiler that the stream was named for a corral built nearby in 1884. A trail follows down this creek from the locality called Indian Village. It was in this general locality that a fight took place between Nez Perces and a band of renegade Snake Indians. This fight is well remembered. See under CEMETERY RIDGE.
CORVALLIS, Benton County. In the winter of 1847-48 Joseph C. Avery began to lay out the community now known as Corvallis. In 1846 Avery settled on property on the north side of Marys River where it flows into the Willamette, and in the same year William F. Dixon settled on land just to the north. Avery's building sites were known as the Little Fields. The first lots are said to have been sold in 1849. The place was first called Marysville, and while Avery probably selected this name, the evidence is not positive. He was using his own name for the post office in 1850. It is generally believed that the place was named because it was on Marys River, but there may have been additional reasons. The origin of the name Marys River is uncertain. See under that heading, where it will be seen that the river name was in use at least as early as 1846. In 1853 the legislature changed the name of the locality from Marysville to Corvallis. Information about the early history of Corvallis may be found in History of Benton County, page 422. E. A. Blake, in a letter printed in the Corvallis Gazette-Times, June 7, 1935, says that Marysville was named for Mrs. John Stewart, also known as Aunt Mary Stewart, one of the first settlers in Corvallis. On the same page is a reprint of an interview with Mrs. Stewart, giving incidents of the early history of the place. Mrs. Stewart is authority for the statement that J. C. Avery told her he would name the community Marysville for her because she was the first white woman to live there. Joseph C. Avery was the first owner of the site of Corvallis, and he was a pioneer of 1845. He died in 1876. Avery made up the name Corvallis by compounding Latin words meaning heart of the valley. It is said that the name Marysville was changed to prevent confusion with Marysville, California. Corvallis has an elevation of 224 feet and the geography of its immediate surroundings may be seen on the USGS map of the Corvallis quadrangle. Avery's post office was established January 8, 1850, with J. C. Avery postmaster. The name was changed to Marysville September 9, 1850, with Alfred Rinehart postmaster. Avery became postmaster again on March 14, 1851; Wayman St. Clair on November 5, 1851; Geo. H. Murch on January 7, 1853, and Avery again on June 7, 1853. The name of the office was changed to Corvallis on February 18, 1854. The name Marysville was applied to another post office, Forks of Mary's River, for a few weeks in the summer of 1850. This was probably an error, the authorities at Washington applying the change to the wrong office. See OHQ, volume XLI, page 55 for records of these offices.
CORYELL Pass, Lane County. This pass is on the narrow shelf of ground between the Willamette River and the hills about a mile south of Springfield Junction. It is occupied by the tracks of the Southern Pacific Company, with the Pacific Highway just above. It was named for Abraham H. Coryell, a pioneer of 1847, who lived nearby, and the pioneer routes of travel led through this gap. A memorial stands just east of the highway at this point bearing the following inscription: "Coryell Pass. Oregon Trail 1846. Erected by Oregon Lewis and Clark Chapter, D. A. R. 1917." ground RIELLS pf these of the wran error, ​
COSPER CREEK, Polk and Yamhill counties. This stream is near Grand Ronde, and was named for a pioneer family. Casper Creek is wrong.
COTTAGE GROVE, Lane County. Cottage Grove is an important community in the southern part of Lane County, on the line of the Southern Pacific Company and on the Pacific Highway. Its elevation is 641 feet and the Coast Fork Willamette River Aows through it. The post office was first established east of the present site of Creswell, March 3, 1855, with G, C. Pearce as postmaster. Pearce had his home in an oak grove, and named the post office Cottage Grove. Andrew Hamilton became postmaster in September, 1861, and he moved the ofhce to the present site of Saginaw. When Nathan Martin was postmaster in the latter '60s the office was moved to a point on the west bank of Coast Fork Willamette River in the extreme southwest part of what is now the town of Cottage Grove. When the railroad was built through in the '70s a station was established more than half a mile north and east of the post office. This was the start of a bitter neighborhood controversy that ran on for nearly two decades. The people living near the post office would not allow it to be moved to Cottage Grove railroad station, so a new post office was established at that point and named Lemati. Lemati is a Chinook jargon word meaning mountain, but why it was selected as a name for the new post office is not apparent. Lemiti is the generally accepted spelling of the word as used elsewhere in Oregon. Cottage Grove was incorporated in 1887, but in 1893 the eastsiders rebelled and secured a charter for East Cottage Grove. The name of this place was changed to Lemati by the legislature in 1895, and the railroad station sported two names on its signboard, although Lemati was in small letters. The differences were subsequently composed and an act was passed in 1899 to consolidate the places with the name Cottage Grove. Lemati post office, as a rival to Cottage Grove, was in operation from November 21, 1893, to September 5, 1894, with Laban F. Wooley postmaster. However, on March 28, 1898, the name of the Cottage Grove office was changed to Lemati and it operated that way until May 10, 1898, when the name Cottage Grove was restored. Perry P. Sherwood was postmaster at this time.
COTTON, Multnomah County. Cotton is a station on the line of the Portland Electric Power Company about a mile west of Gresham. It was named for William Wick Cotton (1859-1918), a well-known attorney of Portland, who owned a large farm near the station. Cotton was a native of Iowa, and studied law at Columbia University, New York City. He came to Portland in October, 1889, and practiced law continuously until his death, at which time he was counsel of the Oregon-Washington Railroad & Navigation Company and other important corporations.
COTTONWOOD, Lake County. Cottonwood post office was named for Cottonwood Creek which flowed nearby the office. The place was about ten miles southwest of Lakeview, and Rial T. Striplin was the only postmaster the office ever had. Cottonwood office was established May 1, 1897, and was discontinued November 1, 1897, with papers to Lakeview. The office was near the west quarter-corner of section 34, township 39 south, range 19 east. Cottonwood Creek flows very close to this land corner.
COTTONWOOD CREEK, Lake County. This stream is northwest of ​
Goose Lake and drains several townships. There are a score of Cottonwood creeks in Oregon, and all serve to testify to the popularity (no pun intended) of members of the Populus group, including Populus angustifolia, Populus trichocarpa and others. General H. M. Chittenden, in The American Fur Trade of the Far West, says that one of, if not the most important tree in the fur trade business was the cottonwood. Not only were cottonwoods beautiful trees, but lines of them were welcome sights to the trappers and travelers, indicating water courses and fuel supplies. They provided shelter in winter and summer and rather surprisingly, fairly good horse feed. Ponies ate and throve on cottonwood bark quite successfully. Most of the Cottonwood creeks in Oregon have borne their names so long that it is impossible to say who named them.
COTTRELL, Clackamas County. Cottrell is a crossroads locality in the extreme north part of the county on the Bluff Road about five miles north-northwest of Sandy. The post office was established March 26, 1894, with Charles Andrews first of two postmasters. The office was closed June 29, 1904, probably because of the extension of rural free delivery. In addition to the locality Cottrell, there is a Cottrell School nearly a mile eastward, and at one time there was a station Cottrell on the Mount Hood electric railway about a mile north of the community. This station was in Multnomah County, but the electric railway and station have been abandoned. Cottrell was named for the family of Mrs. Charles Andrews, nee Cottrell. Couch LAKE, Multnomah County. It is not surprising that thousands of Portland residents have never heard of Couch Lake but in the flood of June, 1948, this pond made an effort to reestablish itself. Its success was short-lived. Couch Lake was in the vicinity of Portland Union Station. It was named for Captain John Couch, one of the founders of Portland. An account of Captain Couch and his activities will be found in Oregon Pioneer Association Transactions for 1886. Captain Couch built a home on the west bank of this lake according to an article in the Oregon Sunday Journal for October 20, 1946. The lake covered about twenty-two Portland city blocks and had a depth of about fifteen feet. The compiler has a dim recollection of this body of water of about 1890 and as he recalls it the lake had been reduced in size by that time. In the '80s this lake and surrounding land was bought by the Northern Pacific Terminal Company which had been organized in 1881. The first contract for filling the lake was let in 1888. The material used was ballast from incoming ships and sand from the river bed. The Union Station was formally opened February 14, 1896, and the first train left it that evening. There was much delay between the time the property was purchased and the time the station was completed due to financial problems. The architects of the station were Van Brunt & Howe of Kansas City. If McKim, Mead and White of New York ever drew any plans for this station, as has been reported, they were not used.
COUNCIL BUTTE, Klamath County. This butte is near Sprague River about two miles from Yainax. The USBGN adopted the name Council Butte in 1927, thus bringing to an end a controversy of many years standing. Gatschet, in Dictionary of the Klamath Language, uses the name Yainaga for this butte. Yainaga is the diminutive of yaina, meaning hill or mountain. For many years the butte has been officially known as Council Butte, and the name Yainax Butte became transferred to a ​
mountain with an elevation of 7226 feet, about 12 miles to the southeast. The name Council Butte had its origin in the council held at the little butte when a treaty was signed between the whites and certain Snake Indians on August 12, 1865. Government surveyors used the name Council Butte in 1866 when they surveyed the township. During the past few years efforts have been made by some of the older residents of the county to have the name Yainax returned to the little butte near Yainax community, but it was not considered practicable to do so because the name Council Butte had been so long in use by some of the government bureaux. See under YAINAX and YAINAX BUTTE.
COUNCIL CREST, Multnomah County. This is the highest point on a range of hills south of Portland. Its elevation is 1073 feet. It was a part of the John B. Talbot donation land claim and was subsequently owned successively by C, A. Beal, James Steel and Graham Glass, Sr. The hill was for a time known as Glass Hill and was later called Fairmount, which name is still retained by the boulevard which encircles it. On July 11, 1898, delegates to the National Council of Congregational Churches met on top of this hill. Some discussion was had concerning a good name for it. A delegate from Portland, Maine, suggested Council Crest. This name was at once approved by Geo. H. Himes, who was present, and a report of this meeting was sent to newspapers. The Indians at one time may have used the crest as a meeting place and signal station because of its wide outlook, but there is no historic record of it. For additional information about the naming of this crest see the Oregonian, editorial page, July 29, August 5, 1927. For denial that the crest was used by Indians as a signal point, see interview with Miss Ella Talbot, Oregon Journal, March 15, 1914. The wooden observation tower long in use on top of Council Crest was torn down late in 1941, and in 1942 a steel standpipe with a capacity of 500,000 gallons of water was built in its place.
COURTNEY CREEK, Linn County. Courtney Creek, south of Brownsville, was named for John B. Courtney, who operated a pioneer sawmill near the point where the stream leaves the foothills. He settled in the vicinity in 1846.
COURTNEY CREEK, Wallowa County. Courtney Creek was named for pioneer stockmen, Lins, Alex and Bent Courtney. It is in the north part of the county.
COURTHOUSE Rock, Grant County. This is a well-known landmark in the west part of the county. The name is quite descriptive. See under
COURTROCK.
COURTROCK, Grant County. Courthouse Rock is the name of a peculiar formation in the hills in the west part of the county. This rock may be seen for many miles in all directions. When the post office was established nearby in April, 1926, postal authorities selected the name Courtrock from among several that were suggested. Mrs. Viola A. Lauder was the first postmaster.
COUSE CREEK, Umatilla County, Couse is derived from the Nez Perce Indian word kowish, and is the name of an edible root used for making bread. Piper and Beattie in their Flora of Southeastern Washington give its botanical name as Cogswellia cous. It is a member of the natural order Umbelliferae. The stream in Umatilla County rises in the western slopes of the Blue Mountains and flows into Walla ​Walla River
southeast of Milton. There are probably other geographic features in the state with the same name, due to the fact that the Indians found the roots plentiful in such localities. Cove, Jefferson County. The place on Crooked River known as Cove is not inappropriately named. At this point, which is about two miles south of the mouth of the river, the stream is in a canyon with an overall depth of some 900 feet. About half way down from the bluffs above the river west of Culver, there is a bench or shelf, and this shelf is closed on the east by rock walls, forming a natural cove. Further down into the canyon is another natural cove near the river. The county highway from Culver to Grandview crosses Crooked River at the Cove bridge, and after passing over a rocky divide several hundred feet high, makes a second descent this time to cross the Deschutes River. It then climbs a sevenmile grade to the bench west of the Deschutes. The remarkable geological formation of the two canyons and the ridge are well worth an inspection. Cove, Union County. Cove lies in a natural pocket where Mill Creek flows from the Wallowa Mountains, and it has an elevation of 2893 feet. It is on the east edge of the Grande Ronde Valley and at the west foot of Mount Fanny. The first family settled there on October 9, 1862, and on June 4, 1863, a post office was established which was given the name of Forest Cove, for descriptive reasons. Samuel G. French was the first postmaster and he probably suggested the name. On June 29, 1868, post office authorities eliminated the first part of the name because of the confusion with Forest Grove in Washington County. As a result of this simple action there arose in Union County a feud that lasted many years. In 1864 Union County was created, and as was frequent in pioneer days, there was contention over the location of the county seat. In 1872 a bill was passed putting the matter to a vote, and the two communities that received the highest vote in the preliminary balloting were to be eligible for the final election. Some votes were cast for Forest Cove by old timers to whom the new name did not mean much, and as a result an attempt was made to deprive Cove of its position in the contest. T. T. Geer's Fifty Years in Oregon, chapter XXXVI, gives an entertaining account of these matters. Cove ORCHARD, Yamhill County. This is a descriptive name applied to a community in the northern part of the county. It was platted with this name by F. C. Graham of Portland. Coverdale, Wallowa County. Coverdale is a locality in township 5 south, range 47 east, close to Imnaha River, but it is not a community. It is a campground and forest guard station. The place was named in 1909 by J. Fred McClain, a forest ranger, for Marion Coverdale, a hunter and trapper who lived on Prairie Creek in the early '80s. Cow CREEK, Douglas County. This stream is one of the historic landmarks of southern Oregon. It is tributary to the South Umpqua River and for a large part of the way from Glendale to Riddle it occupies a narrow defile through rugged mountains. The Siskiyou line of the Southern Pacific Company shares Cow Creek Canyon with the creek, For many years very high water in the stream has been a menace to traffic. It is popularly supposed that the Pacific Highway passes through Cow Creek Canyon but this is not true. South of Canyonville the Pacific Highway follows Canyon Creek, which is also in a narrow defile. Some ​
miles to the south the Pacific Highway crosses Cow Creek, but at this point the creek occupies a wide valley. Walling's History of Southern Oregon, page 424, says an immigrant recovered his cattle from thievish Indians in this valley, from which fact the creek derived its name. Cow Gulch, Grant County. Cow Gulch drains into Murderers Creek from the north about a mile up from the mouth of the creek. It has been so called for a long time. The name was applied because the gulch was a natural collecting point for cattle.
COWHORN MOUNTAIN, Douglas and Klamath counties. This mountain is at the summit of the Cascade Range, at the junction with the spur known as Calapooya Mountains. In pioneer days it was known as Little Cowhorn to distinguish it from Big Cowhorn, farther south, now Mount Thielsen. It had a peculiar spire or rock pinnacle on its summit, making it resemble Mount Thielsen, and the two peaks were named because of resemblance to a cow's horns. Many years ago the pinnacle on Little Cowhorn fell off. Cox CREEK, Linn County. Cox Creek is a stream east of Albany that heads near Spicer and flows northwest to Willamette River. Between the new and the old locations of Pacific Highway East it forms Waverly Lake. Cox Creek was named in pioneer days for Anderson Cox, a prominent Linn County citizen and a member of the Oregon constitutional convention. Cox took up a donation land claim on this stream. Willard Marks of Albany told the compiler in 1942 that when he was much younger, youthful cronies spent Sundays and holidays in the vicinity of this stream, doubtless fishing and otherwise obtaining physical refreshment. In 1911-13 the U. S. Geological Survey mapped the area and applied the name Second Periwinkle Creek to the stream, apparently overlooking Cox Creek as having the first title. Thus the matter rested for three decades until local residents bestirred themselves to get the old name restored. This was done on February 26, 1942, by decision of the USBGN, and the official designation is now Cox Creek. Cox ISLAND, Lane County. Lily Cox took up a homestead on this island and it has been known as Cox Island ever since. She was the daughter of W. A. Cox, a pioneer settler in the vicinity of Acme, now Cushman. Cox Island is in the Siuslaw River about two miles upstream from Florence. Coxcomb Hill, Clatsop County. This is the summit of the ridge south of Astoria, between the Columbia River and Youngs Bay. The compiler has been unable to learn who first applied the name. The spelling used is the customary form applied to court fools and jesters who wore an imitation coxcomb, and were frequently called coxcombs. The Astoria Column, presented by Vincent Astor as the result of efforts made by Ralph Budd, president of the Great Northern Railway Company, stands at the top of Coxcomb Hill. It depicts important events in the history of the Pacific Northwest. It was dedicated July 22, 1926, before a notable gathering. The bench mark in the base of the Astor Column has an elevation of 595 feet, and the top of the tower dome, at the base of the finial, has an elevation of 720 feet.
COYOTE CREEK, Lane County. The word Coyote is used to describe a number of geographic features in Oregon, including a station in Morrow County, a butte in Baker County known as Coyote Point, and several streams. Coyote is derived from the Mexican or Aztec name ​
coyotl, the word for the prairie wolf, or barking wolf of western North America, Canis latrans. Early settlers looked upon the coyote as a nuisance because of his noisy habits and his tendency to pay a midnight visit to the chicken roost, on which occasion he could be perfectly quiet. Creeks and points where coyotes were seen or heard had the name of the animal attached, and possibly some were named because of the fact that a coyote had been killed nearby. The Chinook jargon word for the coyote was talapus, with which was associated an idea of deity, or god of the plains.
COZAD MOUNTAIN, Douglas County. This prominent mountain northeast of Oakland was named for a pioneer of that neighborhood, Jonathan Cozad, who is said to have come to Oregon in the '50s. The accent is on the second syllable. CozinE CREEK, Yamhill County. This stream rises in the eastern foothills of the Coast Range and flows through McMinnville where it joins South Yamhill River. It was named for Samuel Cozine, who was born in Kentucky in 1821 and was a pioneer of Oregon. He settled on land adjacent to the present site of McMinnville in 1849.
CRABTREE CREEK, Linn County. Crabtree Creek rises in the west slope of the Cascade Range and flows into the South Santiam River just east of the forks of the Santiam. The stream, together with a station on a branch of the Southern Pacific north of Lebanon, was named for John J. Crabtree, a native of Virginia, who crossed the plains in 1845. After wintering on the Tualatin Plains, Mr. and Mrs. Crabtree bought the William Packwood claim east of the forks of the Santiam in the spring of 1846. See editorial page Oregon Journal, December 3 and 4, 1924, and Carey's History of Oregon, volume II, page 203. Craig Lake, Lane County. Craig Lake is near the summit of McKenzie Pass. It is a pond at the side of the McKenzie Highway. It was named for John T. Craig, one of the founders of the McKenzie toll road, who died of exposure in December, 1877, while in pursuance of his duties as a mail carrier across the pass. See article on editorial page of the Portland Telegram, September 17, 1925. A masonry tomb has been built over the remains of John Templeton Craig, close beside the highway, and on July 13, 1930, a bronze plaque on the headstone was dedicated in his honor. This was done by the Oregon Rural Letter Carriers Association. Robert W. Sawyer of Bend made a short talk about Craig, which is printed in OHQ, volume XXXI, page 261. Craig was born in Wooster, Ohio, in March, 1822, and came to Oregon in 1852. Much of his mature life was spent on the McKenzie road construction.
CRAIG MOUNTAIN, Union County. Dunham Wright of Medical Springs informed the compiler in 1927 that this mountain west of Union bears the name of "Pap" Craig, a pioneer resident of the county, former sheriff and also county judge.
CRANE, Harney County. The community Crane was named because of its situation near Crane Creek and Crane Creek Gap, prominent geographic features in the Harney Valley. Crane post office was first established June 10, 1895, with Henry C. Turner first postmaster. The office was discontinued June 30, 1903, but was reestablished October 11, 1916. It may have been moved a time or two.
CRANE CREEK, Harney County. Crane Creek is prominent because the valley of the stream and Crane Creek Gap to the west form a natural ​pass between the drainage area of South Fork Malheur River and Harney Valley. Crane Creek is doubtless named for the sandhill crane, Grus canadensis tabida, formerly a common summer resident of eastern Oregon. For information about this bird, see Birds of Oregon, Gabrielson and Jewett, page 229. A smaller bird, the little brown crane, has been known in Oregon. The California heron or blue crane is found generally in western Oregon.
CRANE CREEK, Lake County. Crane Creek flows into Goose Lake a few miles south of Lakeview. Crane Mountain, elevation 8447 feet, is a little to the southeast of the creek and about five miles south of the Oregon-California state line. These two features were named for an early settler. History of Central Oregon, page 816, says this man's name was Samuel Crane and that he settled on the creek in 1869. The compiler has a statement from John Venator of Lakeview, made in 1943, to the effect that his father bought land from a man who was called "Bill" Crane and that the creek and peak were named for him. The two Cranes may have been brothers or otherwise related. In any event, the geographic features do not seem to have been named for the bird, despite the popular notion.
CRANE PRAIRIE, Deschutes County, Crane Prairie, before the regulating dam for irrigation storage was built at its lower end, was a natural meadow, with several river channels cutting across it. The main stream flowing through the prairie is Deschutes River. When unreg. ulated, the water stands on the prairie in the spring, but by midsummer the meadows are comparatively dry. The dam built at the south end of the prairie can be made to hold back sufficient water to flood the entire area several feet deep. This has been done to such an extent that the natural woods fringing the prairie have been water killed and present a desolate appearance. The prairie is so called because of the number of cranes that fish there. When full, the water surface of the reservoir has an elevation of about 4440 feet and covers an area of about seven square miles.
CRATER LAKE, Clackamas County. This lake, some four miles north of Clackamas Lake, is so called because of a peculiar crater or sink hole in the grassy marsh surrounding it. There is a notion that the name is not particularly apposite, especially on account of the much more important Crater Lake in Oregon. The name Turquoise Lake has been suggested but as far as the compiler knows has not been officially adopted.
CRATER LAKE, Crater Lake National Park, Klamath County. This is a mountain lake between five and six miles in diameter, with an area of about 21 square miles, situated in the caldera of the extinct volcano, Mount Mazama, on the summit of the Cascade Range. It is fed by small streams from melting snowbanks on the inner slopes of the rim, and has no visible outlet. Elevation 6177 feet. This lake is one of the deepest in the world, and soundings have been made of 1996 feet. The highest point on the rim is Hillman Peak, 8156 feet above the sea. The water is of an intense blue. Crater Lake was discovered on June 12, 1853, by John W. Hillman and a party of prospectors, and was christened Deep Blue Lake. It has been known at times as Mysterious Lake, Lake Majesty, Lake Mystery, and other similar names, but on August 4, 1869, it was named Crater Lake by a party of visitors from Jacksonville, Oregon. ​
For information about the discovery of the lake and the various names, see Mazama, volume I, number 2. For information about Mount Mazama, see under that heading. For particulars about the unveiling of the tablet in memory of J. W. Hillman, see the Oregonian, September 21, 1925, page 1 and editorial. Crater Lake National Park was created by an act of Congress May 22, 1902, and embraces about 250 square miles of land and water. The lake may be reached by highway from Medford, Fort Klamath, or Bend. The USGS publishes a contoured map of the Crater Lake National Park, and the National Park Service issues maps and other valuable information. For many years the most comprehensive story of the park and its geology was that in USGS Professional Paper 3, Geology and Petrography of Crater Lake National Park, by Diller and Patton, Washingon, 1902. In recent years there has been a demand for an appraisal of the older theories about the origin of the lake and for a popular account of the business. The latter need has been met by the publication of Crater Lake, the Story of its origin, by Howel Williams of the University of California, Berkeley, 1941. This volume, full of interest and well illustrated, has been followed by Geology of Crater Lake National Park, Oregon, also by Williams, published by the Carnegie Institution at Washington, 1942. This is a more formal publication of great scientific importance. Crater Lake is one of nature's marvels. It is more in the nature of a scenic wonder than any. thing else the writer has ever seen. Oddly enough it is not a real crater lake at all, because it occupies a caldera far larger than the crater of the original mountain. Crater Lake has been the subject of so much writing and is so well known to the public that the writer does not feel it necessary to elaborate. There are, however, two illusions about the lake that should be dispelled. The lake does freeze over, contrary to popular belief. Also many people discuss the possibility of underground outlets from Crater Lake. It is doubtful if there are any. The lake receives almost its entire supply direct from precipitation, as the drainage area is but a little larger than the lake. It is fairly certain that evaporation accounts for all of the outgo from the lake, without allowance for underground flow.
CRATER PEAK, Crater Lake National Park, Klamath County. This peak was named by engineers of the U. S. Geological Survey because of the extinct crater in its summit. It has an elevation of 7265 feet.
CRATER Rock, Clackamas and Hood River counties. Crater Rock is a well-known point on the south slope of Mount Hood. It was so named because of the smouldering crater on its north side, between the rock and the slope of the mountain. Crater Rock was once near the central axis of the mountain, but the preponderance of precipitation on the southwest slope of Mount Hood has resulted in the slope wearing away more rapidly than the other sides, which has caused the summit to be shifted gradually northeast.
CRATES POINT, Wasco County. This is a conspicuous promontory west of The Dalles, around the toe of which flows the Columbia River, changing course from north to west. It is part of the east portal of Columbia River Gorge. A nearby railroad station is known as Crates. These features were named for Edward Crate, a French-Canadian who came to Oregon as an employee of the Hudson's Bay Company in 1838. He was born in Canada about 1821. He is reported to have been one of ​
those who manned the boat that brought down the river the survivors of the Whitman massacre, rescued from the Indians by Peter Skene Ogden. He served in Thomas McKay's company in the Cayuse War of 1848. Crate stayed in Oregon City until 1850 and in April of that year went to The Dalles to settle. The records of the land office indicate that he made settlement on his claim on April 1, 1851, at the place now called Crates Point, which he selected because it was adapted to landing boats. The Crate claim was near the river under the slope of the bluff. The name on the original application at the land office is spelled Crete, but the family apparently abandoned this form of spelling long ago. According to Dr. William McKay, the Indian name of the locality of Crates Point was Thleyap Kanoon, which referred to a variety of freshwater mussels. These were gathered and used for a great feast and general good time. Crate was married to Sophia Boucher, a native of New Caledonia, on June 24, 1844, at Vancouver. The marriage record is in St. James parish register. She was born about 1830. The couple had 14 children, some of whom became well-known citizens of Oregon. Edward Crate died in 1894. In a list of Indian names for localities near The Dalles, Dr. McKay gives Kat-ka Talth for the mountain at Crates Point. This means Flint Mountain.
CRAWFORD, Yamhill County. This is a station between Lafavette and Newberg, and was named for Medorem Crawford, who was born in Orange County, New York, June 24, 1819. He came to Oregon in 1842 with Dr. Elijah White, and took a prominent part in the affairs of the state. He died December 27, 1891. For biographical information, see Scott's History of the Oregon Country. Medorem Crawford was esteemed by all who knew him and his narrative of the emigration of 1842 appeared in OPA Transactions for 1881.
CRAWFORDSVILLE, Linn County. Crawfordsville is on Calapooya River about eight miles above Brownsville. It was named for Philemon V. Crawford, upon whose land the town was built. He was born in Madison, Indiana, in 1814, and crossed the plains in 1851. The town was founded in 1870 by Crawford and Robert Glass. Crawford died in Eugene February 1, 1901. His son, Jasper V. Crawford, was first postmaster at Crawfordsville. Information to the effect that the place was named for George F. Crawford is wrong.
CRAZYMAN CREEK, Wallowa County. Crazyman Creek follows a circuitous course through township 4 south, range 48 east and drains into Imnaha River. In 1931 J. H. Horner of Enterprise told the compiler that the stream was named in the early '80s because of an incident involving Jack Johnson, who was hunting. Johnson, looking down into the canyon, saw a man who acted as if demented, cavorting and jumping about. Johnson found the man to be Scotty McKinnel, who was camped nearby with John Williamson, William Ellis, and Dock Fake. McKinnel's antics were caused by surprise at seeing another man in the neighborhood. The party named the stream Crazyman Creek because of this event.
CRESCENT, Crook County, Crescent post office was established on the Crook County list July 31, 1886, with Nettie M. Powell postmaster. The office was closed in September, 1888, but was reopened in December, 1888, and was finally closed October 1, 1890. At the first closing, the business was turned over to Prineville and at the second closing to ​
Mitchell. The writer has been unable to get data about this office, why it was named, or where it was situated. A map of 1889 shows the place about 35 miles east of Prineville, but there are no details.
CRESCENT, Deschutes County. B. J. Pengra settled in the upper Deschutes Valley probably in the '80s and undertook the development of some of his holdings. He was instrumental in having a post office established on April 10, 1893, with the name Crescent. This office was closed on April 6, 1895. Details about Crescent have been hard to gather. Pengra had a place on Little Deschutes River near the mouth of Paulina Creek and this may have been the location of Crescent post ofhce. There is nothing to indicate that the office was at or even near the present community of Crescent. Pengra had named Crescent Lake in the Cascade Range in 1865 and the name may have stuck in his mind. There had already been a Crescent post office in eastern Crook County, but it had no connection with Pengra's office. See also under the headings LAVA,
PENGRA and ROSLAND.
CRESCENT, Klamath County. This town, with an elevation of 4452 feet, is an important trading point on The Dalles-California Highway about 50 miles south of Bend. It was at this place that the proposed junction of the Harriman north and south and east and west railroads was to have been situated, with the name of Odell, for Odell Lake. There was another Odell in the state, in the Hood River Valley, so the promoters of the townsite changed the name to Crescent for Crescent Lake, one of the large lakes of the Cascade Range located 15 miles to the west.
CRESCENT LAKE, Klamath County. This is one of the impressive mountain lakes of Oregon, on the east slope of the Cascade Range just southeast of Diamond Peak. It is fed principally by Summit Creek, and its outlet is Crescent Creek, which flows into Little Deschutes River. Its south shore is skirted by the old Oregon Central Military Road, and the Southern Pacific Cascade line passes a little to the east of the lake. It is named because of its shape. The normal elevation is about 4837 feet, but there is some variation due to water storage. USGS Professional Paper 9 describes this lake in detail. The geography of the lake and its immediate surroundings are shown on the USGS maps of the Chemult, Diamond Lake and Maiden Peak quadrangles. Crescent Lake was named in July, 1865, by B. J. Pengra and W. H. Odell, while making a reconnaissance for the Oregon Central Military Road. Pengra's report, dated November 29, 1865, is in part on file at the Oregon Historical Society.
CRESCENT LAKE, Klamath County. When the Cascade line of the Southern Pacific Company was constructed, a station called Simax was established near the north end of Crescent Lake. See under
SIMAX Bay. The railroad company later changed the name of the station Simax to Crescent Lake for the lake a half a mile to the south.
CRESCENT MOUNTAIN, Linn County. Crescent Mountain is about 20 miles east of Cascadia and four miles north of the South Santiam Highway. The name is descriptive and has been in use for a very long time. The mountain, as seen from the air, is a well-defined ridge, shaped like a horseshoe, open to the east. Crescent Creek, which flows eastward, drains the horseshoe. The highest point is on the southwest turn, elevation 5761 feet.
CRESTON, Malheur County. Creston is a descriptive name and was given because the post office was on a divide or crest east of South Fork Malheur River. The name was proposed by T. R. Beers in 1910. ​
CRESWELL, Lane County. Creswell was named by Ben Holladay for John A. Creswell, postmaster general from 1869-74. John A. Creswell was born in Maryland in 1828, and served as U. S. representative and as senator before joining the cabinet. In 1874 he was appointed counsel of the United States in the Alabama Claims matter and served until 1876. He died December 23, 1891. Creswell station was named by Holladay several years before the post office was established. The date of establishment of Creswell post office is uncertain, due to difficulty in reading postal records. It may have been on March 4, 1873 or possibly on March 4, 1876. Creswell has an elevation of 543 feet and is on the line of the Southern Pacific Company and the Pacific Highway. Creswell Butte, about a mile to the south, has an elevation of 982 feet.
CRESWELL CANYON, Marion County. This is a canyon in the hills north of Jefferson and its lower end is crossed by the Pacific Highway East just north of Steiwer Hill. It was named for Donald C. Creswell, a pioneer of Oregon. He was born in Tazewell County, Illinois, in 1830, and his land office certificate 4993 says that he arrived in Oregon on October 10, 1852. He cultivated his donation land claim near this canyon beginning October 31, 1853. He was married to Mary Ann Rush on November 30, 1851, in Louise County, Iowa. He spelled his name without a "t."
CRIBBINS Hill, Coos County. This is a small hill south of Myrtle Point. It was named for William Cribbins, a pioneer settler nearby.
CRICKET Flat, Union County. J. H. Horner of Enterprise told the compiler in 1927 that this flat was named for the very large crickets which infested this place in the early '70s. William Knight, whose parents settled at what is now Cove, Oregon, in the '60s, informed Horner that his father drove hogs from Cove to Cricket Flat to feed on these crickets. Cricket Flat was considered to be a fine hog pasture. General O. 0. Howard crossed this flat in the late summer of 1878 and camped about three-quarters of a mile west of the present site of Elgin.
CRIMS ISLAND, Columbia County. Broughton discovered Crims Island and nearby islets in the Columbia River on October 26, 1792, and named them Bakers Islands for the second lieutenant of Vancouver's ship Discovery. This seems to be the same island that Lewis and Clark named Fannys Island, in honor of Frances, William Clark's youngest sister. Wilkes gives the name Gull Island in the atlas accompanying U. S. Exploring Expedition, volume XXIII, Hydrography. James F. Crim took up a homestead on the island and received his patent February 10, 1871. The USBGN adopted the name Crims Island on October 5, 1927, at the suggestion of the compiler of these notes. With the lapse of time Wilkes' name Gull Island has become transferred to a small islet north of the west end of Crims Island.
CRIPPLE CREEK, Clackamas County. This stream flows into the Clackamas River from the east in township 5 south, range 6 east. In 1927 W. C, Elliott, civil engineer of Portland, told the compiler that a surveyor in his emyloy cut his foot with an ax at this point in 1897.
CRITERION, Wasco County. It is understood that a number of homesteaders suggested several names to the Post Office Department when the application was made for a post office at this point. The first preference was for Three Notches and the second was for Criterion. The Post Office Department objected to the first name because it was made of two words and adopted the second name. The writer has been ​
unable to learn why this name was suggested. The word means a standard by which to judge of the character or excellence of an object or thing. Pioneer stockmen called the locality Three Notches because of three cuts in a prominent juniper tree, still standing in 1946, east of the highway. Criterion Summit is the highest point on The Dalles-California Highway between The Dalles and Redmond. The bench mark just west of the highway has an elevation of 3362 feet and the highway summit is a couple of feet lower. This was once known as Lakeview Summit, but why is a mystery. There are no lakes within miles of the place. Criterion post office was established in September, 1913, and closed in June, 1926.
CROISAN RIDGE, Marion County. Croisan Ridge and Croisan Gulch lie not far from the east bank of the Willamette River just southwest of Salem. These features were named for a prominent Marion County pioneer family. The first member of this family to live in Oregon was born in Batavia in 1812 of Huguenot parents. He emigrated to the United States in 1839 and came to Oregon over the Applegate route in 1846. After various pioneer experiences, including a trip to California, he settled on a donation land claim southwest of Salem in March, 1850. See editorial page, Oregon Journal, December 18 and 19, 1925. He died September 14, 1875. The original application for the land claim shows the name spelled in various ways, including Croisant, Croisint and Crossint. The given names of this pioneer settler were John Henry. While the land office records seem to indicate that the spelling Croisint was the correct one, present members of the family state that the name was really Croisant. The second generation in Oregon found the name so frequently mispronounced that the final "" was dropped and the name has become Croisan. The Croisan family tradition says the name originally meant growing, the French for which would be croissant. Croissant is also the French for crescent.
CROMWELL, Union County. Old maps show Cromwell on the railroad at a point between Telocaset and North Powder. The post office was established July 24, 1882, and was closed December 2, 1884. Julius T. Cromwell was the only postmaster and the office was named for him. Polk's Gazetteer for 1886-7 says that Cromwell was also called Antelope Valley. The post office was close to Antelope Creek wagon bridge on the original homestead of Robert Brannan.
CROOK, Crook County. Crook, a place on the headwaters of Bear Creek, was named for the county. Available maps show the office moved about a little, apparently depending on who would accept the postmastership. Crook post office was established June 16, 1886, with Nancy Hinton postmaster. The office was finally closed in November, 1908.
CROOK COUNTY. Crook County was created October 24, 1882, from a part of Wasco County after Lake County had been taken off on the south. (Special Laws of 1882, page 178.) For many years it was one of the large counties of central Oregon, but is now diminished in size as the result of the creation of Deschutes and Jefferson counties. It has an area of 2980 square miles, according to the U. S. Bureau of the Census. Prineville is its county seat. Crook County was named for George Crook, major-general in the U. S. Army, who was born near Dayton, Ohio, September 8, 1829; died at Chicago March 21, 1890. He ​
was graduated from West Point in 1852. Prior to the Civil War he served in the West and was wounded in 1857 in the Pit River country. He made a brilliant record in the Civil War, and afterwards in Indian wars of the West. See Scott's History of the Oregon Country, volume II, page 184, and volume V, pages 223-25. Crook PEAK, Lake County. Crook Peak was undoubtedly named for Major-General George Crook, who fought Indians throughout south central Oregon in several campaigns. See under CROOK COUNTY. Crook was in the territory west of Warner Valley near what is known as Crook Peak in 1867. See Bancroft's History of Oregon, volume II, page 535, et seq. The USC&GS gives the elevation of Crook Peak as 7834 feet. Crook POINT, Curry County. This point is in approximate latitude 42° 15', and is within 20 miles of the Oregon-California boundary. It is also about five miles south of Cape Sebastian. The point is moderately low, but terminates seaward in a rock knoll 160 feet high, with lower ground immediately back of it. It was named for A. H. Crook, who for many years operated a large stock ranch nearby.
CROOKED CREEK, Klamath County. This is a stream near Klamath Agency, tributary to Wood River. It bears a descriptive name. The Klamath Indian name is Yanaldi Koke, literally "Stream bordered by the Yanaldi Ridge." Koke is the Klamath word for stream. For additional information see under AGENCY HILL.
CROOKED CREEK, Lake County. This stream drains Antelope Valley north of Lakeview and flows north into Lake Abert. The correct name is Crooked Creek and not Crook Creek. There is a story to the effect that it was named for Major-General George Crook but such is not the case. It owes its name entirely to its physical characteristics.
CROOKED CREEK, Malheur County. This stream has a descriptive name. It joins Owyhee River a few miles below the mouth of Jordan Creek in the vicinity of the place called Rome. Captain George B. Currey of the First Oregon Volunteer Cavalry calls the stream Gibbs Creek in the Oregon Adjutant General's Report, 1865-66, page 35, in compliment to Governor Addison C. Gibbs. Currey established Camp Henderson on Gibbs Creek May 26, 1864. The name Gibbs Creek has not prevailed.
CROOKED FINGER PRAIRIE, Marion County. This prairie is southeast of Silverton. According to Down's A History of the Silverton Country, page 3, it bears the name of a Molalla chief. He is supposed to have died at Grand Ronde Agency, although there is another story to the effect that he was shot near the Clackamas River.
CROOKED RIVER, Crook, Deschutes and Jefferson counties. This stream was named during the fur trading period, and the name bestowed is unusually appropriate. Arrowsmith's map of North America, London, 1824, with pen corrections probably to 1832-33, shows Crooked River by name and in good detail. A map prepared under the direction of Col. J. J. Abert, dated 1838, shows the name Crooked River. This map is attached to the Cushing report, more properly described as 25th Congress, 3rd Session, House report 101, entitled Territory of Oregon, with supplemental report. USGS bulletin 252, by Dr. I. C. Russell, is the standard handbook of the geology of central De on wiha PPE Oregon and contains much valuable information about Crooked River. In 1925 the USGS made an extended survey of the topography and ​
geology of Crooked River between its mouth and Trail Crossing, with particular reference to the remarkable springs that feed the stream in this section. The state of Oregon and the U. S. Reclamation Service published a bulletin in 1915 entitled Ochoco Project which contains much other information about Crooked River. For information about the highway bridge over Crooked River near Terrebonne, see the Oregonian, August 1, 1926, section 7, page 1.
CROOKS, Union County. Crooks is a station on the Union Pacific Railroad in the Blue Mountains. It was named for William Crooks, who was born in New York City in 1831, and died in Portland December 17, 1907. He was for some years an official of the railroad. For his biography, see the Oregonian, December 18, 1907. Colonel William Crooks was the son of Ramsay Crooks, of the Astor overland party. For adventures of Ramsay Crooks, see Irving's Astoria. He was born in Scotland in 1787, and died in New York City June 6, 1859. He was credited with being "the strongest man, next to Mr. Astor himself, who at any time stood at the helm in the home office at New York." (Chittenden.) Crooks CREEK, Linn Couny. This stream is in the extreme north part of the county and is intermittent in character and its waters eventually find their way into the Willamette River about eight miles north of Albany. This stream was named for John T. Crooks, who took up a donation land claim nearby. Cross Keys, Jefferson County. Much research has been expended on the origin of the name of Cross Keys post office, first established on the Wasco County list, but applicable to a locality now in the extreme north part of Jefferson County. The locality is just south or southwest of the mouth of Cow Canyon, and close to the banks of Trout Creek. The post office was doubtless moved from time to time. An office with the name Trout Creek was established July 3, 1878, with Jasper A. Friend postmaster. William Heisler became postmaster on October 17, 1878, and on February 13, 1879, Robert Ashby became postmaster. On this date the name of the office was changed to Cross Keys. Edward G. Bolter became postmaster on July 8, 1879, and ran the office until September 24, 1898, when it was closed to Ridgeway. It was reopened a few weeks later and ran until July 31, 1902. There is a notion in central Oregon that Cross Keys was named for the place in Wales, but so far the compiler has found no confirmation of the statement. It has been asserted that either Heisler, Ashby or Bolter applied the name, but these assertions are also without confirmation. Statements that Cross Keys was several miles south in the valley of Hay Creek are not confirmed by any maps in the possession of the compiler. A later office called Willowdale was not far from the original site of the Trout Creek office.
CROSTON, Marion County. Croston was the name of the post office on the east bank of Willamette River at the east landing of Halls Ferry. This landing was several miles down stream from Independence. The post office was established December 22, 1884, with Benjamin F. Hall first of three postmasters and continued in service until March 19, 1901. When it was established, Croston post office was put on the Polk County list, but this must have been in error, for there is nothing to indicate that it ever operated in Polk County. It is obvious that the name was intended to indicate a place where there was a crossing, in this case a ferry. ​
ver Crow, Lane County. The postmaster at Crow informed the writer that the community was named for one Andy Crow who was first postmaster, although this information does not agree with data furnished by the postal authorities, who state that the post office at Crow was established November 6, 1874, with Alexander Wood first post. master. However, members of the Crow family were prominent pioneer settlers in that part of the county, and the community doubtless bears the name of one of them. Will G. Steel told the compiler that the word Crow was a literal translation of an Indian word Andaig, applying to the locality, but search failed to bring any confirmation of the statement. Crow CREEK, Wallowa County. Crow Creek is northeast of Enterprise and flows northward to join Joseph Creek. According to J. H. Horner of Enterprise, the stream was named by A. C. Smith and Jasper Matheny in the late '70s because they found the birds so thick in the aspen groves along its banks. Crow RIDGE, Wallowa County. This ridge lies between Joseph and Deer creeks in the northeast part of the county. It was named for Bert Crow, first settler on the ridge in the early '80s. He was the first man to take a wagon from this ridge down to Grande Ronde River.
CROWCAMP Hills, Harney County. This is a prominent group of hills on the east edge of Harney Valley. They have a maximum elevation of 5892 feet. These hills, and Crowcamp Creek, are said to have been named for Rankin Crow, a stock herder working for Todhunter & Devine, pioneer cattlemen. Crow discovered an excellent spring in the locality, and camped there. Later the Crowcamp Ranch was established nearby.
CROWFOOT, Linn County. Crowfoot is a crossroads community on the South Santiam Highway about two miles south of Lebanon. It has not had a separate post office, but has been served through Lebanon. All the available evidence says that the locality got the name Crowfoot because the roads intersecting there came together in a pattern that suggested the track left by a crow's foot. This is shown clearly by the Geological Survey map of the Lebanon quadrangle. Katherine Harris, in a column headed Off the Record, in the Lebanon Express for January 23, 1947, gives a good deal of history about the place called Crowfoot. It was named many years ago, apparently by Hester Sturdevant, an early resident of the locality. The Grange Hall, one of the important buildings at Crowfoot, was formerly the old college hall at Sodaville. When the college was abandoned, the building was moved to Crowfoot.
CROWLEY, Malheur County. This post office and creek nearby were named for James Crowley, who settled there and established a ranch about July, 1874.
CROWLEY, Polk County. This station is on the Southern Pacific Company line between Holmes Gap and Rickreall, and was named for Solomon K. Crowley, an early resident of the neighborhood. He was born in Missouri in 1833 and came to Oregon in 1852. See HinesNlustrated History of the State of Oregon, page 1012. Crown Rock, Wheeler County. Crown Rock was a post office not far from the present site of Clarno. Huntley post office was established February 28, 1876, with Joseph Broughton first postmaster. The compiler has not been able to get the history of the name. The name of the office was changed to Pine Creek on June 23, 1876. This name was of course for Pine Creek, a prominent stream flowing into John Day River from the ​
east. On December 10, 1877, the name was changed again, this time to Crown Rock for a prominent geological formation in the vicinity, apparently a rimrock of basalt.
CRUTCHER, Malheur County. Crutcher post office was established on the Malheur County list March 20, 1900, with Elliott W. Crutcher first and only postmaster. The office bore his family name. It was in operation only until August 13, 1901, when it was closed to Jordan Valley. The compiler has not been able to learn the exact location of this office but obviously it was in the east part of the county and south of Vale.
CRUTCHER BENCH, Clackamas County. This side hill bench lies just north of the junction of Sandy and Zigzag rivers. It was named for H. P. Crutcher, who filed a claim on the bench about 1890.
CRUZATTE, Lane County. Cruzatte, a station on the Cascade line of the Southern Pacific Company, was named for a member of the Lewis and Clark party, Peter Cruzatte. Lewis and Clark spelled his name in several ways, and named a stream in Washington for him, now known as Wind River.
CRYSTAL, Klamath County. This name was originally applied to a fine stream flowing into Upper Klamath Lake near Pelican Bay. In 1925, Postmaster S. A. Brown reported that he thought the stream was named in 1891 by G. W. Malone and John Young. Crystal, as the name of the office, was proposed by the first postmaster, D. G. Brown, in 1894, when it was established through his efforts.
CUCAMONGA CREEK, Harney County. This stream rises on the northwest slopes of Steens Mountain, and enters Kiger Creek, a tributary of Donner und Blitzen River. The name is derived from Cucamonga Creek, San Bernardino County, California, and was applied to the Harney County stream by Mrs. Dolly Kiger. Cucamonga is an Indian name and according to Mrs. Nellie Van de Grift Sanchez, in Spanish and Indian Place Names of California, was originally applied to a native village about 42 miles east of Los Angeles, and later to a land grant. Mrs. Kiger wrote the compiler in 1927 that she lived in the Harney Valley from 1874 to 1878 and that one of her neighbors, Mace McCoy, had formerly lived in California and frequently spoke of Cucamonga wine, a variety made in the southern part of the state. Mrs. Kiger named Cucamonga Creek because she liked the sound of the word.
CULLABY LAKE, Clatsop County. A lake on Clatsop Plains, about two miles long, fed by small streams. The present outlet is through a ditch into Skipanon River. Many years ago this lake drained through Neacoxie Creek, which first flowed northward and then turned south and emptied into the estuary of Necanicum River. Shifting sands have from time to time interfered with the flow of Neacoxie Creek and thus changed the drainage from Cullaby Lake. In recent times extensive cranberry culture has developed along the shores of the lake. Its elevation is near sea level. Silas B. Smith is authority for the statement that the Indian name for this lake was Ya-se-ya-ma-na-la-tslas-tie. See OHQ, volume I, page 322. It was later named for Cullaby, a well-known Indian character on Clatsop Plains. Cullaby had a peculiar light complexion, and was a son of the Indian whom Lewis and Clark saw on the last day of the year 1805, and whom they described as "freckled with long dusky red hair, about 25 years of age, and must certainly be half white at least." ​
unty. Culp. Coreck Cottages Porhood a few years
CULP CREEK, Lane County. Culp Creek is a post office as well as a stream tributary to Row River southeast of Cottage Grove. Culp Creek was named for John Culp, who settled in this neighborhood a few years prior to 1900. A logging company established a camp there and called it the Gulp Creek camp, and when the post office was established February 24, 1925, the name naturally attached itself to the new office, Geo. E. Potter, a local merchant, was first postmaster. For additional information, see Cottage Grove Sentinel, March 28, 1929.
CULTUS LAKE, Deschutes County. Cultus is a Chinook jargon word, quite expressive, meaning bad or wholly worthless. It is used in many places in the Pacific Northwest, generally because of the lack of one or more of the pioneer traveler's greatest needs, "wood, water and grass." Cultus Prairie meant that the horse feed was poor. The word found its way into the jargon from the Chinook Indian word kaltas. In addition to Cultus Lake in Deschutes County, there is also a Little Cultus Lake and Cultus Mountain. The latter was doubtless named for the lakes. Cultus has been spelled in many ways, including Kultus, Cultos and Cultis, but the USBGN has adopted the form Cultus.
CULVER, Jefferson County. In the latter part of 1900 at a dinner party of old settlers living in the Haystack country. G. Collver was requested to make an application for a post office and to act as postmaster. A number of names of old settlers were submitted to the department, and Culver was adopted, this being the ancestral name of Mr. Collver. O. G. Collver was born at Roseburg February 10, 1854, and went into central Oregon in June, 1877. He was appointed postmaster of Culver October 31, 1900. The site of Culver post office as first estab. lished was about five miles east of the present town. 0. G. Collver died in Portland November 14, 1939. For a short biography, see Madras Pioneer, November 23, 1939.
CUMLEY CREEK, Linn County. This stream is west of Detroit. Charles C. Giebeler of Detroit, wrote the compiler in 1927 that the creek was named for a nearby resident, but that he could secure no detailed information about the man.
CUMMINGS CREEK, Grant County. Cummings Creek is a tributary, from the north, of John Day River, 13 miles east of Dayville. J. E. Snow, of Dayville, informed the compiler in October, 1927, that James Cummings settled on this stream in pioneer days. He came from Maine and was a bachelor. Members of his brother's family still live in the neighborhood. James Cumming's house was one of those burned by the Indians in 1878. The stream was named for him.
CUMMINS CREEK, Lane County. This creek and Cummins Ridge to the south are in the extreme northwest corner of the county. They were named for F. L. Cummins, an early homesteader. The form Cummings is incorrect.
CUNNINGHAM CREEK, Coos County. This stream is north of the town of Coquille. It was named for E. Cunningham, a pioneer settler on its banks. Cupit Mary MOUNTAIN, Lane County. Cupit Mary Mountain, elevation 6175 feet, is a prominent point just west of Waldo Lake. In March 1943, C. B. McFarland, for many years a ranger with the United States Forest Service at Oakridge, furnished the compiler with information about Cupit Mary. She was the youngest daughter of an Indian known ​
as Old Moses, who lived at an Indian village near what is now Oakridge. She was not well thought of by other Indians. Her name, Cupit, is reported to be an Indian word meaning last, indicating her position among Old Moses' children. It is doubtless the same as the Chinook jargon word which Gibbs gives as ko-pet, meaning stop, the end or enough. Old Moses was probably discouraged. Ko-pet is accented on the second syllable.
CUPPER CREEK, Grant County. Cupper Creek is in the northwest corner of the county and flows south into North Fork John Day River a few miles west of Monument. The name of this stream perpetuates a type of story that is full of human interest, but perhaps not romantic enough to get the attention it deserves. The history of the immigration of the Cupper family illustrates what it took to develop that part of Oregon that produces livestock. Henry Adams Cupper and his wife, Cordelia Harriet Cupper, together with three small children, left England in January, 1877, and after a stormy voyage across the Atlantic, reached the end of rail travel at Redding, California. They took stage to Linkville, now Klamath Falls, and Cupper got a job of sorts in the Poe Valley. They spent the winter in Ashland and in the spring started with wagon and team looking for a location to settle. They journeyed near what is now Lapine, and got lost, but finally reached Farewell Bend where they "loaded up with water and crossed the desert to Prineville." From Prineville they continued northward, crossing John Day River at McDonald Ferry and then turned southeast through Lone Rock to Heppner. At Heppner they undertook to freight a load of provisions into Bill Welch, Dodging the Indians, they delivered the cargo, and were so impressed with the Welch Ranch, the natural meadows and the abundance of game that they arranged to buy the squatters' right. Welch is said to have assumed that they would not stay, and he would get the place back. In the meantime the Indians had "broken out" and had attacked Long Creek, and so many settlers returned to Heppner that they swept the Cuppers along with them. The Cuppers remained at Heppner six weeks and then returned to the ranch and braved the rest of the Indian troubles. Cupper brought sheep into the cattle country, which did not endear him to his neighbors. They raised a large family and lived on the ranch until 1918. They moved to Salem and celebrated their golden wedding anniversary on October 1, 1922. Mr. Cupper died in January, 1923, and Mrs. Cupper in 1938, when she was 90 years old. Cupper Creek is still fifty miles from a railroad and some seven miles from a post office.
CURIOSITY CREEK, Wallowa County. Curiosity Creek flows into Imnaha River in section 32, township 2 north, range 48 east. It was named in 1883 by Hugh Conahar for a curious limb of an alder tree. The branch grew back into the tree like a jug handle. CurriNSVILLE, Clackamas County. This is a station on the line of the Portland Electric Power Company two miles north of Estacada. It was named for George and Hugh Currin, who were pioneer settlers in Clackamas County and took up donation land claims near this point. For editorial comment about members of the Currin family, see the Oregonian, November 19, 1943. See also editorial page Oregon Journal, September 25, 1928. A post office named Zion was established in this general locality on June 24, 1874, with William H. H. Wade first postmaster. in section Conahar fixe a jug hand ​
The name of the office was changed to Currinsville on January 8, 1884, with George J. Currin postmaster. The office was closed February 16, 1906. Zion post office was obviously named by a biblical enthusiast.
CURRY COUNTY. Curry County was created December 18, 1855, and was taken from the south part of Coos County. It was named for George Law Curry, who was born at Philadelphia July 2, 1820; died Portland July 28, 1878. On arrival at Oregon City he acted as editor of the Oregon Spectator from October 1, 1846, until the end of 1847, and in April, 1848, published the Oregon Free Press. He represented Clackamas County in the provisional legislature of 1848-49, served as chief clerk of the territorial council of 1850-51, and represented Clackamas in the house of the territorial legislature in 1851. In 1853, President Pierce appointed Curry secretary of the territory of Oregon. A few days after taking that office, he became acting governor through resignation of Governor Joseph Lane. In December, 1853, Governor John W. Davis arrived, but in August, 1854, Davis resigned, and Curry was acting governor until appointed governor a few months later. He served as governor until the territory became a state, in 1859. "He was of singularly amiable disposition, honorable, and gifted with a versatility of such degree that whatever he undertook was well performed." (OPA Transactions for 1878, page 80.) He was editor of the Portland Advertiser, the third daily newspaper at Portland, first published January 1, 1861, and the Evening Journal, January 25 to April 25, 1876. For biography of himself and his wife, Chloe Boone Curry, see the Oregonian, February 12, 1899. For his narrative of early history of Oregon, ibid., March 15, 1872, page 3; February 28, 1872, page 3. Curry was territorial governor when Curry County was created. For early history of Curry County, see the Oregonian for February 14, 1886, by O. W. Olney. See also Scott's History of the Oregon Country, volume V, page 222, for a tribute to Curry. The Pioneer History of Coos and Curry Counties, edited by Orvil Dodge, contains much interesting material about early days in Curry County. Bancroft, in History of Oregon, volume II, page 415, says it was first proposed to name this county Tichenor, for Captain William Tichenor of Port Orford, a member of the legislative council from Coos County. Tichenor declined this honor saying that his constituents wanted the new county named for Governor Curry.
CURTIN, Douglas County. This place was named for Daniel Curtin, who operated a sawmill there in the early '90s. Curtin is on the Southern Pacific railroad about seven miles northeast of Drain.
CUSHMAN, Lane County. Cushman is a station and post office on the Coos Bay line of the Southern Pacific Company, and is on the north bank of the Siuslaw River. It is about a mile east of Cushman community, which was formerly Acme. It was named by the railroad company for C. C. and I. B. Cushman, local residents. The company already had an Acme on its lines and did not wish to duplicate that name, and after the station was changed, the post office authorities followed suit. The name Acme was originally applied by Mrs. W. A. Cox, an early settler. It is said that Mrs. Cox dreamed she was to live in a place called Acme, so when her husband platted a townsite in Lane County, the place was called Acme.
CUSTER, Coos County. Custer post office in the south part of the county was named for Custer M. Hermann, son of Cass M. Hermann, ​a prominent Coos County pioneer. The office was at the Cass Hermann stock ranch on the mail road south from Myrtle Point to Eckley, Curry County, and was in the hills just north of the head of Rowland Creek. Custer Hermann did not live to maturity. Custer post office was established July 19, 1893, with Cass M. Hermann first and only postmaster. *The office was closed May 17, 1901. A. H. Bender of Myrtle Point, a nephew of Cass M. Hermann, sent in the information about this name.
Cutler City, Lincoln County. Cutler City, just south of Taft and on the east shore of Siletz Bay, has had a remarkable development as a resort town. It was started by Mr. and Mrs. George Cutler, who are said to have acquired the property from "Uncle Charley" DePoe, a Siletz Indian. The Cutlers formerly lived near Dallas. Mr. Cutler died in 1913 and Mrs. Cutler in 1939. For obituary of Mrs. Cutler, see Oregon Journal for June 19, 1939.