There is background on why and how some things in the district were named on trail pages. For items that didn’t fit on a trail page, they have been put here.

• Battle Axe – There are two stories as to how it received its name.  One is to the effect that it is sharp and has the appearance of a battle axe, while the other is that is was named by an old woodsman of the North Santiam Valley for a brand of chewing tobacco which was popular in the 90’s (1890’s) and which he used liberally while exploring in the neighborhood of the mountain.¹
• Bissell – was named for W.S. Bissell, the postmaster general of the US from 1893-95. Bissell post office was established in 1895 and operated until 1924.¹
• Breitenbush post office and Breitenbush hot springs got their name from the river. The post office was established in 1928 and operated until 1953. The river was named for John Breitenbush, a pioneer hunter who preceded John Minto (he explored the area in 1873).¹
• Collawash River was first named Miners Fork because of the mining activity near its headwaters on Collawash Mountain.¹
• Dead Horse Butte – Dee Wright, a native of Molalla, informs the compiler that in pioneer days several stray horses were lost in this canyon and perished, hence the name. Dead Horse Butte nearby took its name from the canyon.¹
• Faraday – This is the station for the Cazadero power plant of PGE on the Clackamas River.  It was named by B.O. Coldwell, for Michael Faraday, the great British scientist, who discovered the induction of electric current.¹
• The Farm – this term appears on old Maps – Farm Creek was named by Joe Davis, Jim Russell, Andy Wyland and Joe Dickey, who prospected and mined in that part of the county in the 80’s (1880’s).  They found good horse feed at the head of Farm Creek and left their stock there to pasture, calling the place “The Farm”.¹
• Hambone Butte – It was named by TH Sherrard of the Forest Service, who says that the selection of the name was arbitrary, and that it had no peculiar significance.¹
• Lake Harriet was named for the daughter of Franklin P. Griffith, the first president of PGE.¹
• Lemiti Meadow – This name presents the curious but not infrequent application of a descriptive geographic name that does not describe the feature to which it is attached but something entirely different. Lemiti is the Chinook jargon word for mountain and is a corruption of the French la montague. Ephraim Henness, pioneer resident in the valley of the the North Santiam River and one of the first forest rangers in the north Cascade Range, established and named Lemiti Ranger Station. The word Lemiti, or mountain, was later applied to a nearby point, Lemiti Butte, and also to Lemiti Meadow and Lemiti Creek by someone who did not understand its exact significance.¹
• Linney Creek – This was named for an engineer connected with the Mount Hood Railway and Power Company project.¹
• Mack Hall Creek – Named to honor Mack Henry Hall, a part-time USFS employee. He was killed in an automobile accident near Eugene in 1933.¹
• Nekbobets Lake west of Olallie Lake was named after World War II by a fish-planting crew. The name is a reversed combination of Ken, Bob, and Steve Koski, sons of Reino Koskim crew chief. The incorrect form Neknoberts was corrected by the USBGN in 1999 – many maps still show the incorrect form.¹
• Nohorn Creek – Nohorn is the popularized version of the name Nachand. John Nachand was a pioneer prospector of eastern Clackamas County with James Russell and Joe Davis. It is said that Nachand had formerly mined in the Cariboo district in British Columbia. Little is known of his history – he died about 1905. He was universally called Nohorn and the name Nohorn is well established for the stream.¹
• Oak Grove Butte – Named for the Oak Grove Fork of the Clackamas River and not because of any groves of oaks on its slopes.¹
• Oak Grove Fork, Clackamas River – In early days, Wapinitia, on the east side of the Cascade Range was known as Oak Grove, and because this fork headed in that general direction it was known as Oak Grove Fork.¹
• Olallie Butte – Olallie is from the Chinook jargon and means berries in general, or salmonberries. Gibbs gives it as a derivative of the Chinook word klalelli, meaning berries. Its use along the Cascade Range generally meant huckleberries.¹
• Plaza Guard Station – This was named by T.H. Sherrard of the USFS because of a natural plaza or clearing which afforded a fine view of Mt Hood. The Guard station is long gone but is remembered by nearby Plaza Lake.¹
• Scorpion Mountain – According to Dee Wright of Eugene, this mountain received its name at the time the nearby USFS trail was built because there were so many small wood scorpions on the rotting logs that were moved.¹
• Shellrock Creek – Named because they were near Shellrock Mountain which had shale slides on its slopes. The name of the mountain was changed to Frazier mountain because there were several other Shellrock mountains in Oregon.¹
• Signal Buttes – T.H. Sherrard of the USFS said the name was intended to be descriptive because as far as he knew there never were any signals of any kind on these buttes. The pointed summits gave rise to the name.¹
• Silver King Mountain – It was named for a mining claim nearby which was located by some Portland men.¹
• Sisi Butte – Sisi is the Chinook jargon word for blanket or cloth. Gibbs also gives the form pa ‘see-sie but it is the same word. In 1927, Dee Wright, who was a walking encyclopedia about Cascade Range place-names, siad that he had never been able to get a good explanation as to why the name was applied to Sisi Butte, although Indians told him it was correct.¹
• Skookum Lake is named with the Chinook jargon word which originally meant a strong or powerful deity, and later came to mean simply strong or stout. When used in connection with localities, the word skookum generally indicated a place inhabited by a skookum, or god of the woods. It sometimes meant a place used as a burial ground.1
• Soosap Peak – Dee Wright said that it was named for Soosap, a well-known Indian of Oregon City who occasionally hunted in the neighborhood of the mountain. He was also known as Joe Suisap and Joseph Andrews and was part Klickitat and part Molalla. Soosap died January 18,1916. Soosap peak was at one time known as Arquette point for a settler who lived nearby the name has not persisted.¹
• South Dickey Peak – Named for J.K. Dickey, a native of Pennsylvania who came to Oregon from Missouri in 1845 and settled in a small valley near Molalla in 1846. He hunted a great deal near the Collawash river and it is thought that government surveyors named the features for him because of this fact.¹
• Splintercat Creek – It received the fantastic name of the legendary flying cat of the woods, which was supposed to splinter branches from trees and tear out dead stumps.¹
• Wanderers Peak – Dee Wright said this peak and Wanderers Creek were named because a part of hunters got lost nearby and wandered around several days before they found camp.¹
• Whetstone Creek – The creek was named by John Paine and Preston Pendleton (familiarly known as Doc Pendleton) because of the prevalence of a rock that could be used to sharpen knives.¹

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Silver King Mountain and Lake – They were named for the Silver King Mine nearby which was located by some Portland men.

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¹Oregon Geographic Names, McArthur, Lewis.