Page:Oregon Geographic Names, third edition.djvu/203

 voir. This gulch was named for Jerry DeSpain, a prominent Umatilla County pioneer.

DETER, Jackson County. Deter post office was named for the David M. Deter family. This family owned a cattle ranch near the present site of the post office. Deter is a flag station on the Southern Pacific Company line in the Siskiyou Mountains south of Ashland. The post office was established July 15, 1920.

DETROIT, Marion County. Charles C. Giebeler, the well-known postmaster and packer of Detroit, wrote the compiler in 1925 that the first name suggested for this community was Coe, but the post office authorities disapproved of the name because it was too much like Cove in eastern Oregon. Detroit was the name then selected because of the presence in the community of a number of Michigan people. Detroit post office was established October 16, 1891, with Vanness G. Danforth first postmaster. Devils BACKBONE, Clackamas County. This is a narrow divide between Sandy and Bull Run rivers. It was named in pioneer days because of the great difficulty emigrants experienced in getting their wagons past the place. Devils BACKBONE, Crater Lake National Park, Klamath County. Well named. This is a gigantic series of serrated rocks forming a vertical backbone on the inside rim of Crater Lake. Its name is imaginative. Devils CANYON, Gilliam County. There are a number of canyons of this name in the state, at least two of which are in Gilliam County, opening into the canyon of John Day River. They are so called on account of the unusual rock formations suggestive of satanic influences, and also because they are so difficult to get through.

DEVILS GARDEN, Lake County. Devils Garden is northeast of Fort Rock. It is an irregular area of several square miles, with a growth of juniper trees, and it is surrounded by extensive lava flows, which form a striking contrast to the enclosed tract which is mostly of ordinary soil. The surrounding lava has given the place its name.

DEVILS HORN, Deschutes County. This butte of peculiar color is in the south part of Paulina Mountains. It is composed of lava of a reddish hue, and its shape is suggestive of the name that has been given it. It is several hundred feet high. Devils LAKE, Lincoln County. Devils Lake is near the Pacific Ocean in the northwestern part of the county. It was named because of an Indian legend which is to the effect that a giant fish or marine monster lived in the lake and occasionally came to the surface to attack some hapless native. There are several versions of the story but this one is sufficient to indicate the origin of the name. The post office nearby is called Delake, a corruption of Devils Lake. See also under NEOTSU.

DEVILS LAKE FORK, Tillamook and Washington counties. Devils Lake Fork, one of the larger tributaries to Wilson River, heads in the extreme west edge of Washington County and flows northwest to join the main stream near Wilson River Highway. The fork has become well known in recent years because of the conspicuous steel viaduct that carries the highway over the stream. Devils Lake Fork takes its name from the fact that it drains a small body of water called Devils Lake, so called as a result of Indian nomenclature. The Indians, particularly of the Coast Range region, were fearful of a number of lakes and localities