Page:Oregon Geographic Names, third edition.djvu/146



4291, according to the Strahorn railroad survey. The name is derived from the Klamath Indian words tchua, meaning wild potato, and keni, a general suffix meaning locality or place. The wild potato is generally known in Oregon and Washington as the wapato, arrowhead or sagittaria. It was an article of food with many tribes. See USGS WSP 220 and 363 for information about the marsh. See also the Oregonian, September 14, 1925, page 11, for information about the wapato.

CHICKEN Hill, Grant and Union counties. Chicken Hill is in the Blue Mountains on the watershed between the Grande Ronde and North Fork John Day rivers. The local tradition about the origin of the name is to the effect that in the days of the mining fever a freighter was hauling in supplies from Columbia River points and on top of an otherwise bulky load were several crates of chickens for the mining camps. The load capsized before reaching the top of the hill and the chicken coops were so badly smashed that the fowls escaped into the brush, crowing and cackling. The locality has been called Chicken Hill ever since.

CHICKENHOUSE GULCH, Grant County. This gulch was named for a sheepherder's cabin built there in the early days. The cabin was very rough and so were the herders when they referred to their abode. Chico, Wallowa County. The town of Chico was named by George Harris, who had formerly lived in Chico, California, and when he took up a homestead in Wallowa County, he named it for his former home. Chico is a Spanish word meaning little. Chico, California, is laid out on the old Spanish land grant, Rancho del Arroyo Chico. This rancho was in 1854 certified to General John Bidwell, an early California pioneer, who laid out the town of Chico. Stories to the effect that Chico, California, was named for a governor, Chico, seem to have no foundation and the compiler can find no record of any such person.

CHIEF JOSEPH MOUNTAIN, Wallowa County. This mountain has been known at various times as Tunnel Mountain and Point Joseph, but in 1925 the USBGN officially named it Chief Joseph Mountain in honor of the famous Nez Perce Indian chief. Joseph, or Young Joseph as he was sometimes known, was born near the mouth of Imnaha River in June, 1837, and died at Nespelem, Colville Indian Reservation, September 21, 1904. He was the son of Old Joseph, who died about 1871, and the grandson of Ollicut, a Cayuse Chief. Old Joseph took his wife from a band living near the mouth of Asotin Creek. In May, 1877, Young Joseph and his band began to threaten the white settlers in the Wallowa Valley, claiming the valley as his ancestral home. After some skirmishing and encounters, the Indians finally began their famous journey to Montana, pursued by troops. Chief Joseph made his last stand at the Battle of the Big Hole, August 9, 1877, and on October 4, 1877, he surrendered to Colonel Nelson A. Miles at Bear Paw, Montana. For references to this matter see Scott's History of the Oregon Country, volume II, pages 104 and 332. For news story about launching of Liberty ship named for Chief Joseph, see Oregon Journal, March 28, 1943, main section, page 15.

CHILOQUIN, Klamath County. Chiloquin is the whiteman's form of a Klamath Indian family name Chaloquin. Chaloquin was the village chief of the old Indian town of Bosuck Siwas, or Painted Rock, and his name was given as Chaloquenas in the treaty of 1864. Two sons, George and Mose Chaloquin, served with the state troops in the Modoc War. China Cap, Union County. This peak is in the southwest part of and encolaiming and begaouch of iet og ho die K a S =