Page:Oregon Geographic Names, third edition.djvu/340



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IRMA, Curry County. Irma was a post office on the old road about midway between Gold Beach and Harbor. It was very close to the north line of township 39 south, range 14 west. The office was established February 11, 1895, with Clara A. Clarke first postmaster. This office was discontinued July 23, 1902, Dodge's Pioneer History of Coos and Curry Counties lists N. D. and Clara A. Clark as having settled in that part of Oregon in 1891. Clark appears to have been interested in a variety of things and was an inventor of sorts. Among the children of Mr. and Mrs. Clark was Irma, born in 1879, and it is reasonable to suppose that the post office was named for this sixteen year old girl. Post office records use the spelling Clarke but Dodge has simplified it. The compiler does not know which is correct but past experience has shown post office records in respect of the spelling of proper names are generally reliable. Emma Hardenbrook was appointed postmaster of Irma post office on June 20, 1898, and it is reported that the office was moved about five miles south at that time.

IRON MOUNTAIN, Clackamas County. Iron Mountain is the name applied to an area west of Oswego and north of Oswego Lake. In recent years the principal application of the title has been in the expression Iron Mountain Boulevard. An iron ore called limonite was mined extensively in this locality from 1867 to about 1894. F. W. Libbey of the Department of Geology and Mineral Industries has sent the compiler a short statement about this activity which was carried on at first by a company known as the Oregon Iron Company. A small blast furnace was built close to the town of Oswego in 1867, probably the first of such furnaces on the Pacific Coast. The furnace was used fairly continuously to 1886, when a new furnace of modern type was built and put in operation in 1888. Record of iron production ceased after 1894. The new furnace produced nearly 11,000 long tons in 1890 and the industry was of great importance to the Pacific Northwest.

IRON MOUNTAIN, Coos and Curry counties. This mountain is a north-south ridge about 15 miles east of Port Orford and has a maxi. mum elevation of about 4000 feet. The compiler does not know by whom the name was applied, but the style Iron Mountain was in use as early as March, 1856. See Glisan's Journal of Army Life, page 295. In December, 1943, Earl K. Nixon, director of the State Department of Geology and Mineral Industries, wrote the compiler that the moun. tain was probably named because of the reddish-brown color of the rock mass and not because of the presence of iron ore as such. The rock outcrops are prominently stained with ferric oxide and there is a lot of manganese stain but no commercial ore deposits. Iron MOUNTAIN, Harney County. This is about ten miles west of Harney Lake and has an elevation of 5367 feet, according to the

USC&GS. It is known as Iron Mountain because of the hard metallic appearance of the rock of which it is composed. During the Indian disturbances of the '60s, this point was called Pleasanton Butte, apparently in compliment to a well-known officer in the regular army, Alfred Pleasanton, who had been stationed in the Pacific Northwest.

IRON MOUNTAIN, Lincoln County. Iron Mountain, elevation 654 feet, a conspicuous point near the Pacific Ocean about four miles north of Newport, is remarkable for its conical symmetry. The upper part is red brown and has a sort of burned, metallic appearance, hence the name. The mountain is just east of the Oregon Coast Highway.