Page:Oregon Geographic Names, third edition.djvu/261



not know the exact location or the details of construction of Fort Lee. Fort LELAND, Josephine County. Fort Leland was one of the posts used by the Oregon volunteers during the Rogue River Indian uprising of 1855-56. It was just north of where the Pacific Highway crosses Grave Creek north of Grants Pass. For the history of the name Leland see under GRAVE CREEK and LELAND. Fort Leland was established in the fall of 1855 by the Oregon volunteers, and the name is mentioned several times by Victor in Early Indian Wars of Oregon and also in Walling's History of Southern Oregon. There are some ambiguities about the location, but the consensus is that it was at the Grave Creek House and that is local tradition. Walling, page 255, says that after the battle of Hungry Hill, Harkness and Twogood, proprietors of the Grave Creek House built a stout stockade of timbers and prepared for a siege. This stockade appears to be what was called Fort Leland. Troops had their headquarters there for several months.

FORT MINER, Curry County. This fort was not a military establishment, but a log structure built by settlers and miners about a mile and a half north of the mouth of Rogue River, on an open prairie near the ocean. The fort was used during the Indian fighting in 1855-56 as a place of refuge. Rodney Glisan in Journal of Army Life, page 290, uses the name Fort Miner under date of March 8, 1856, and mentions the fort in several places. In one place, on March 25, 1856, he refers to it as Citizen Fort, and it is apparent that the establishment was built some time in 1855. Dodge, in Pioneer History of Coos and Curry Counties, gives a good deal of information about the place and on page 83 refers to it as "Miner's Fort." On page 347 is the name "Fort Miners." Fort Miner seems to have been a semi-official name for the establishment. Glisan says it consisted of two log houses, surrounded by a high earth embankment. Dodge, on page 361 of his history, gives some reminiscences of Judge Michael Riley, which include a statement that the Rogue River miners and settlers built their stockade at first on the south side of the river near the present site of Gold Beach. Riley was absent at San Francisco at the time and on his return in January, 1856, objected to the location because there was not enough open space around. Riley was responsible for building a new Fort Miner north of the river where there was no cover for attacking Indians.

FORT ORFORD, Curry County. Fort Orford was established September 14, 1851, and evacuated in October, 1856. See OHQ, volume

XXXVI, page 59. According to R. C. Clark, the first troops were sent from Astoria. On October 18, 1851, 135 soldiers sailed from the Depot of the Military Division of the Pacific, Benicia, California, to garrison Fort Orford. The detachment was in command of Lt.Colonel Silas Casey. See annual report of the Secretary of War, dated November 29, 1851. The soldiers built the fort with cedar logs and with lumber shipped from San Francisco. The buildings were at the community of Port Orford and the post was named on that account. Dr. Rodney Glisan was stationed at Fort Orford from June 21, 1855, to August 21, 1856, and has written an interesting account of activities there in his Journal of Army Life. In addition to the military post, there was an earlier civilian stockade with blockhouses, also called Fort Orford. Captain William Tichenor's second expedition landed at Port Orford July 14, 1851, and immediately built the first Fort