Page:Oregon Geographic Names, third edition.djvu/505

 3, 1879, and the office was then at the Greener farm about two and a half miles from where Pine is now situated. The name was changed to Pine June 1, 1892. The office was so named because it was in the Pine Creek Valley. There are many geographic features in Oregon named for pine trees. The timbered area of Oregon east of the Cascade Range is largely covered with species of pine. The pines have needle-like leaves and are distinguished from larches, spruces, hemlocks and firs by the length of the needles and the arrangement of the bundles. The only other tree which has its needles in bundles is the larch, but larch needles are short and have as many as thirty needles in a bundle. Pines do not shed all of their needles, and larches do, in the winter. Western white pine, sugar pine and white-bark pine all have five needles in a bundle. Western yellow pine has three needles in a bundle. Lodgepole pine has two needles in a bundle. The three pines of Oregon which have five needles in a bundle can be distinguished from each other by the cones and by the locality in which they occur. Western white pine, Pinus monticola, has a slender cone usually five or six inches in length and is made up of very thin scales. It is scattered through the Cascade Range. It is not considered a common tree and is found generally at altitudes above 2000 feet. Sugar pine, Pinus lambertiana is the largest and most magnificent of the Pacific Coast members of the white pine family. It attains a diameter of from four to seven feet. It has a slender cone generally more than a foot in length made up of thin scales. Sugar pine does not occur in Oregon much further north than Mount Jefferson. The white-bark pine, Pinus albicaulis, has a short cone about three inches in length and made up of thick scales. It occurs on both sides of the Cascade Range at high altitudes generally near the timber line. Western yellow pine, Pinus ponderosa, is the only three-needle pine in Oregon. It has dark bark in its youth and yellow bark when it becomes older. Its needles are long. It is the most common of all forest trees east of the Cascade Range and even west of the range it occurs occasionally in small groups scattered through the Willamette Valley. It is of great commercial importance. Lodgepole pine, Pinus contorta, is a two-needle pine and is very common east of the Cascade Range. West of the Cascade Range it is found mostly along the seacoast. Owing to the dark color of its bark it is frequently called black pine and is also known as bull pine and jack pine. The cones are small and have a tendency to remain attached to the tree, sometimes for many years. These cones may break open during a forest fire and scatter the seeds in all directions. In central Oregon and on the cast slopes of the Cascade Range there are in many places dense thickets of small lodgepole pine. This tree is not yet of great commercial importance but experiments are being made to develop new uses for its wood.

, Linn County. Pine post office was situated atout ten miles east-southeast of Harrisburg near the Lane County line. It was named for the yellowpine trees growing in the foothills. The office was established August 19, 1853, with the name Lat Shaw's Mill, and with William H. Latshaw postmaster. The name of the office was changed to Pine on January 3, 1855, with Thomas M. Weger postmaster. When the name was changed it was noted that the old name was Latshaw's Mill and not with the peculiar arrangement shown above. Pine office continued in operation until October 7, 1887, when the business was