Page:Oregon Geographic Names, third edition.djvu/430



I. N. Sargent platted the townsite of Mitchell. It was incorporated in 1893. About half the town was consumed by fire in August, 1899. It was rebuilt. On July 11, 1904, it was almost destroyed by a cloudburst; two lives were lost. September 25, 1904, it was visited by another flood, but the damage was slight.

MITCHELL Point, Hood River County. Beyond the fact that a man named Mitchell lived and died near this point, little information is available. He is reported to have been a trapper. Efforts have been made to change the name to Storm Crest, but the public has not looked with favor on the plan, and prefers the old name.

MIXUP SPRING, Klamath County. This spring is in the southeast corner of township 37 south, range 15 east, very close to the Lake County line. In April, 1944, Ida M. Odell of Klamath Falls told the compiler that it was named because two bands of sheep once got mixed up nearby. Moccasin LAKE, Wallowa County. Moccasin Lake is in the Lake Basin north of Eagle Cap. The lake, when seen from the north side of Eagle Cap, looks like a moccasin, hence the name. Modoc Point, Klamath County. This is a prominent point on the east shore of Upper Klamath Lake, about fifteen miles north of Klamath Falls. It bears this name because the Modoc Indians, under Captain Jack, lived there from December 31, 1869, to April 26, 1870, and then escaped and went to their old habitat further south. Modoc Point is a well known locality in Klamath Indian folklore, where it is spoken of as Kiuti and also Muyant. Will G. Steel is authority for the statement that the mountain is also known as Nilakla, which is the Klamath Indian name for dawn or sunrise. The Indian name Modoc is derived from the Klamath words moa, meaning south, and takni, meaning a native of that place or country, hence from the point of view of the Klamath Indians, natives of the country just to the south. The term Modoc lakes was formerly used in the Klamath country to refer to Tule and Clear lakes, because Modoc Indians lived nearby.

MOFFAT, Washington County. This station on the Oregon Electric Railway, is near the east city limit of Hillsboro. It was named for George Barclay Moffat, a prominent New York banker and president of the railway company. While on a visit, George B. Moffat died in Portland December 4, 1911.

MOFFETT CREEK, Multnomah County. Investigation by H. H. Riddell of Portland indicated that the family for which this stream is named spelled its name Moffett and not Moffatt. The Columbia River Highway crosses Moffett Creek on a remarkable concrete arch. At the time it was built it was said to have been the longest flat arch bridge in America. See S. C. Lancaster's The Columbia, America's Great Highway.

MOHAWK RIVER, Lane County. According to Gustavus Hines, Mohawk River was named for the stream in the state of New York. The Oregon stream was probably named by Jacob C. Spores, a pioneer of 1847 and a native of Montgomery County, New York, a county drained in part by the original Mohawk River. For short biography of Spores, see Illustrated History of Lane County by Walling, page 481. Darrel Spores, great-grandson of Jacob Spores, and a resident of the Mohawk Valley in Oregon, says that Jacob Spores and a few other whites chased a band of Indians into the valley in 1849 and that Spores, viewing the locality from a high bluff, said that it reminded him of the valley of his