Page:Oregon Geographic Names, third edition.djvu/689

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page needs to be proofread.

Professor F. G. Young, have been published by the University of Oregon. For other information about Wyeth, see editorial in the Oregonian, December 13, 1925. See also under KELLEY Point in this book.


YACH, Tillamook County. Yach post office was in service from March, 1907, to January, 1908, when it was closed out to Dolph. Frank Yach was the postmaster. The Yach homestead was about four or five miles westward of Dolph, on Little Nestucca River. The office was manifestly named for the postmaster.

YACHATS, Lincoln County. This post office was established in 1887 about a mile north of its present location and with the name of Ocean View. George M. Starr was the first postmaster. In 1916 the name of the post office was changed to Yachats for a tribe of Indians. These Indians had previously been moved to Siletz and they are now practically extinct. The name is pronounced Ya-hats. Indians say that the word means "at the foot of the mountain." This interpretation fits the facts. The name of the post office was changed to Yachats at the suggestion of J. K. Berry because it was at the mouth of Yachats River. See Handbook of American Indians, volume II, page 982.

YAINAX, Klamath County. This place was for a number of years a subagency for the Klamath Indian Reservation. It took its name from the Klamath Indian word Yainaga, meaning little hill, which was the name the Indians used in referring to a little butte about two miles away, now known as Council Butte. The name Yainax Butte, originally applied to this feature, has become transferred to a mountain twelve miles southeast. See under YAINAX BUTTE.

YAINAX BUTTE, Klamath County. The government has officially adopted this name for a mountain, elevation 7226 feet, about twelve miles southeast of Yainax, and just south of the Klamath Indian Reservation. The butte has also been known as Modoc Mountain, Bald Mountain and Yonna Butte. Yainax is a Klamath Indian word meaning little hill, and the name is not strictly suitable for a mountain, yet it has been used so long for the feature in question that the USBGN finally adopted it as official. Yainax was originally the name used for what is now Council Butte, near the settlement of Yainax.

YAMADA, Lincoln County. Yamada post office was in operation for a few months near South Beaver Creek, north of Alsea Bay. The office was established March 26, 1898, with Newton L, Guilliams first and only postmaster, and was closed to Ona on December 26, 1899. It is reported that Yamada post office was established as the result of some "feudin" between the people on South Beaver against the patrons of Ona post office, which was on the main Beaver Creek, or north branch. In any event, Yamada office had a short life. There are two places in Japan named Yamada, and this fact tends to substantiate the story that members of the Guilliams family ran across the name while sealing in Alaska and cruising off the coast of Japan. They liked the sound of the word and later applied it to the Oregon post office. The Japanese word yamada is said to mean a mountain field.

YAMHILL, Yamhill County. The name Yamhill, in various forms, comes of course from the Yamhill River, but the exact meaning is a matter of doubt. A post office with the name Yam Hill Falls was established January 8, 1850, with Jacob House postmaster. This office, which was the first post office in Yamhill County, was closed January 6, 1852. Yamhill