Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly vol. 26.djvu/423

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.
OREGON GEOGRAPHIC NAMES
357

sheds of 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, Oregon Historical Society Quarterly, volume VI, page 85; Col-lap-poh-yea-ass, by Alexander Ross, in First Settlers on the Columbia River, pages 235, 236; Call-law-poh-yea-as, in his Fur Hunters, volume I, page 108; Kala-pooyahs, in Townsend's Narrative, page 175; Callapuya, by Wilkes. Lewis and Clark give the word as 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 U. S. Geographic Board has accepted Calapooya as the standard spelling.

Calapooya River is a stream in Linn County, rising in the western slopes of the Cascade Range and joins 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.

Camas Valley, Douglas County. The word Camas is used to describe geographic features in many parts of the state 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, camassia esculenta, 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