page_title: Breitenbush, Oregon
section_title: Lewis Breitenbucher and Discovery by Oregon Settlers
hierarchical_section_title: Breitenbush, Oregon / History / Lewis Breitenbucher and Discovery by Oregon Settlers
caption_attribution_description: English: Lewish Breitenbucher circa 1870
context_page_description: Breitenbush is an unincorporated community in Marion County, Oregon, United States, located approximately 10 miles NE of Detroit, Oregon, and 10 miles NW of Mt. Jefferson. The community is situated on private land, encompassed entirely by the Willamette National Forest, and is notable for having several hot springs, both nearby and on the property. It is said to have been originally homesteaded in 1888, and its hot springs have seen varied degrees of development and use since that time. In its heyday as a resort, the community was serviced by a post office, which operated between 1928 and 1953.
  Today, the community is the location of Breitenbush Hot Springs Retreat & Conference Center, a worker-owned co-op. The physical community is sometimes extended to include a group of 72 privately owned summer vacation homes, situated on neighboring Forest Service land; these cabins receive periodic use from their owners, but are not intended for year-round occupancy.
context_section_description: Breitenbush was the name given to a lake, river, and locale by Oregon State legislator John Minto, who, in 1874, led a survey party in search of a pass over Oregon's Central Cascades. During the expedition, Minto and his party encountered a hunter living in the uninhabited regions of the Upper North Santiam canyon; the hunter was memorable due to his having only one arm, and Minto later gave the man's name to the area, remembering it as "John Breitenbush". When Minto's maps were published in the 1880s, Lewis Breitenbucher was known to locals in the Lower Santiam, who noted the name Minto used was incorrect.
  Lewis Breitenbucher had moved into the uninhabited reaches of the Upper North Santiam Canyon sometime after his wife's death in 1867. Those who met him questioned his abilities to subsist in the wilderness as he did, given his handicap. Breitenbucher attributed his success to putting a bat's eye under his tongue, which he said endowed him with excellent night vision and accounted for his hunting prowess. As a result of this story, residents of the Lower Santiam originally knew the hot springs and river as "Bateye Springs" and "Bateye Creek" until the name on Minto's map became the accepted reference toward the end of the 19th century.
  Despite his namesake being given to the area, Breitenbucher was not the first white man to visit the springs. As early as the 1830s, the springs were known to be visited by pioneers and other trappers, who used the hot waters to cook meat.
caption: Lewis Breitenbucher, circa 1870
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