Geographic names tell a little of the history of Sisters area

Recent turmoil over finding a new name for Squaw Creek has created interest in where names of geographic sites come from. Oregon’s geographic names tell its history. (Material for this story was taken largely from “Oregon Geographic Names” by Lewis A. and Lewis L. McArthur.)

The City of Sisters received its name in 1888 from the Three Sisters Mountains to the west. At that time, the post office was moved from Camp Polk, three miles away, to the new location. Camp Polk had been named in 1865 when a company of army infantry volunteers from Polk County in western Oregon spent a winter here looking for hostile Indians.

Names of the three peaks of the Three Sisters to the west of Sisters are officially the North Sister, the Middle Sister, and the South Sister. While some early accounts from pioneers state that the mountains were called Mount Faith, Mount Hope, and Mount Charity by members of the Methodist Mission near Salem in the 1840s, these names did not persist. Neither the Oregon Geographic Names Board nor the U.S. Board on Geographic Names recognizes these earlier names.

Sisters area names often were applied during early explorations. Lewis and Clark named Mount Jefferson in 1806 for President Thomas Jefferson. The explorers viewed it from near present-day Portland. Black Butte had its descriptive name as early as 1854. The Pacific Railroad Survey shows that name in its official report, but Lt. Henry Abbot, one of the engineers, called it Pivot Mountain in his diary. Nearly a century later, Abbot’s name was given to Abbot Creek, changed from the common name of Eagle Creek in the 1930s. Nearby Abbot Butte was named later by recommendation of the Forest Service.

While most original names have endured to the present, not all have prevailed. Three Fingered Jack was called Mount Marion in the 1870s and Trident Peak in 1895. Its current name was recognized about 1900, supposedly named in honor of a local three-fingered trapper named Jack.

There is uncertainty about who named Mount Washington and when. The name Washington’s Peak appeared in an 1867 survey for Willamette Valley and Cascade Mountain Military Road. The name likely came from its proximity to Mount Jefferson.

Those who participated in early-day road surveys left their mark on the land, although the names were sometimes not correctly spelled. For example, Suttle Lake was named for John Settle in 1866.

Settle, a Willamette Valley pioneer, was one of the organizers and directors of the military road who discovered the lake while hunting. Craig Lake on the McKenzie Pass got its name from John T. Craig, one of the founders of the McKenzie Toll Road. Craig also carried the mail from the Willamette Valley to Camp Polk and perished during a winter trip over the pass in 1877. He is buried near the lake.

The McKenzie Pass received its name from the McKenzie River. That river was named for Donald McKenzie, a member of Astor’s Fur Trade Company. He visited the area in 1812 and by 1834, the river was named McKenzie’s Fork.

Central Oregon’s other major pass, the Santiam Pass, was named for the Santiam River, named for a Kalapooian tribe that lived along the river. There were many phonetic spellings of the tribe’s name ranging from Ahalapam to Santians, but Santiam is the name that has endured.

Booth Lake north of the Santiam Pass and namesake for half of the 2003 B& B Complex Fire was probably named for Robert Booth. He served as an early-day gatekeeper for the old Santiam Wagon Road at the Cache Creek Toll Station west of Sisters.

Graham Butte and Graham Corral, now a popular campground for horseback riders, received their names from the homestead of Mr. and Mrs. E. A. Graham.

They came to the area in 1880 and settled along the old Santiam Wagon Road west of present-day Sisters.

The Metolius River has a long history. The name Mpto-ly-as was first used in the 1855 Pacific Railroad Surveys Reports. Surveyors heard that pronunciation or Matoles or Metoluis from Native Americans. The Warm Springs translation is either spawning salmon or white fish.

The names of Melvin Butte and Melvin Spring located about ten miles southeast of Sisters tell an interesting story. In 1902, J. L. Melvin had a timber claim in this area. Following an argument with an S. H. Dorrance over sawdust found in Melvin’s irrigation ditch, he killed Dorrance on the side of this butte. A jury found Melvin not guilty.