Page:Oregon Geographic Names, third edition.djvu/143



drained valley north untains in thshington andlaste Chehalem office was at the Bayley home. See under WEST CHEHALEM. Daniel Dodge Bayley later went to Tillamook Bay, where he named the town of Garibaldi, and served as first postmaster.

CHEHALEM MOUNTAINS, Washington and Yamhill counties. These are the highest mountains in the Willamette Valley, and that section of the valley north of them is generally known as the Tualatin Valley, drained by Tualatin River. The Chehalem Mountains and some more or less independent spurs extend from the Willamette River east of Newberg northwest to the foothills of the Coast Range south of Forest Grove. The highest known point at the southern end is due north of Newberg, and has an elevation of 1447 feet. At a point on the northern end east of Wapato is a summit of 1633 feet, called Bald Peak. It may be assumed that the modern word Chehalem comes from the Indian name Chahelim, listed under the heading Atfalati (Tualatin), Handbook of American Indians, volume I, page 108. This name is given by Gatschet in 1877 to one of the bands of Atfalati, a division of the Kalapooian family of Indians. Gatschet lists more than twenty of these bands, all living in the general vicinity of the Chehalem Mountains. H. S. Lyman in OHQ, volume I, page 323, refers to a point near the mouth of what is now known as Chehalem Creek and calls it Cham-ho-kuc, but gives no meaning or explanation.

CHEHULPUM CREEK, Marion County. This stream rises in the hills northeast of Jefferson and flows westward into a branch of Santiam River. It has also been known as Doty Creek, but in 1934 a number of local residents petitioned to have the Indian name adopted. The petition was approved by the Marion County Court and the Oregon Geographic Board. In February 1935 the USBGN adopted the name Chehulpum Creek for the stream, which flows under Pacific Highway East just south of Looney Butte. Geo. H. Himes is authority for the statement that Chehulpum was an Indian word meaning Beaver Illahe, or land where beaver were plentiful.

CHEMAWA, Marion County. Chemawa is one of the Indian names in the state that has several fanciful meanings attributed to it, including "our old home," "true talk" and "gravelly soil." There is little on record to substantiate any of the meanings. Silas B. Smith, Clatsop County pioneer, is authority for the statement that Chemay-way was the Indian name for a point on the Willamette River about two and a half miles south of Fairfield where Joseph Gervais settled in 1827-28. The same name was applied to Wapato Lake. Indian names were bestowed generally on account of physical peculiarity, and not for sentimental reasons, and the name may mean "gravelly soil," but gravel is neither peculiar nor abundant at either one of the places mentioned. Many Indian names began with Che and Cham, particularly those applied to places in the Willamette Valley, such as Chemawa, Chehalem, Chemeketa and Champoeg. For information on this matter see article by H. S. Lyman, OHQ, volume I, page 316. Chemawa has an elevation of 165 feet.

CHEMULT, Klamath County. This community, elevation 4758 feet, is toward the north end of the county, on The Dalles-California Highway. It is also a station on the Southern Pacific Cascade line and the junction with that line and the Great Northern Railway. The name is that of a Klamath Indian chief who was one of the twenty-six who signed the treaty of October 14, 1864. The geography of the locality is shown on the USGS map of the Chemult quadrangle.