Page:Oregon Geographic Names, third edition.djvu/115



CAMP SPENCER, Josephine County. Camp Spencer was a place used in the Rogue River War of 1855-56, and is mentioned in Victor's Early Indian Wars of Oregon, page 366. It is described as being on the lower Applegate River. Mrs. Victor gives neither the exact location of the camp nor the reason for the name.

CAMP STUART, Jackson County. A list of military establishments in Oregon should include the name of Camp Stuart, although it is not mentioned in Heitman's Historical Register. In 1917, Princeton University Press published Mexican War Diary of George B. McClellan, edited by William Starr Myers. On page 14 is a note of an entry by McClellan on a page otherwise blank, of an event several years after the Mexican War. The note as printed is: "On the 18th June, 1851, at five in the afternoon died Jimmie Stuart, my best and oldest friend. He was mortally wounded the day before by an arrow, whilst gallantly leading a charge against a party of hostile Indians. He is buried at Camp Stuart – about twentyfive miles south of Rogue's River [Oregon?], near the main road, and not far from the base of Cishion (?) Mountains. His grave is between two oaks, on the left side of the road, going south, with J. S. cut in the bark of the largest of the oaks." Captain James Stuart was graduated from West Point in 1846 and served with distinction in the Mexican War, gaining two brevets. Stuart was wounded in an engagement probably near Rogue River a little upstream from Upper Table Rock. Walling in History of Southern Oregon, page 197, gives an account of the incident and says that Stuart was buried near the present town of Phoenix, close to the site of the Colver house, but mentions no military establishment. There is ad. ditional information in Bancroft's History of Oregon, volume II, page 227. The camp was used intermittently at least as late as 1853. The stream flowing northward through the valley at this point was named Stuart Creek in honor of James Stuart, but settlers later changed the name to Bear Creek, which cannot be considered an improvement. The compiler is of the opinion that McClellan wrote Ciskiou (?) in his note and not Gishion (?).

CAMP WARNER, Lake County. Camp Warner occupied two places in the Warner Valley, some distance apart. In 1866 troops from Vancouver made a reconnaissance into southeast Oregon, and, among other things, selected a site for Camp Warner on the west side of the Warner Valley. Soldiers were sent from Boise, Idaho, with orders to build the camp, but the command reached the east side of the Warner Valley and concluded that it would be impractical to cross the string of lakes and swamps. Accordingly, the camp was built a little east of the valley on the north part of Hart Mountain and named for Brevet Captain William Horace Warner, who was killed by Indians in September, 1849, probably in Surprise Valley, just over the line in California. For information about this event, see under WARNER VALLEY. The Camp Warner mentioned in this paragraph is now generally known as Old Camp Warner. The winter of 1866-67 was very severe and the troops at Old Camp Warner suffered great hardships. Major-General George Crook, then a lieutenant-colonel, took command at Boise in 1866, and in 1867 made an inspection of the Warner Valley. He disapproved of the camp and the locality and was provoked by the story that the troops could not cross the lakes. He caused a rock causeway to be built in a few days and relocated Camp Warner in the west part of the valley, at about the place originally selected by