Page:Oregon Geographic Names, third edition.djvu/542

 Rose Lodge, Lincoln County. Rose Lodge post office was established February 8, 1908, at the home of Julia E. Dodson, the first postmaster. Mrs. Dodson had a rose bower or "gazabo" over her front gate, and named the office on that account.

Ross ISLAND, Multnomah County. This island was named for Sherry Ross, who owned and lived on it in pioneer days. See the Ore. gonian, December 23, 1926, and Oregon Journal, editorial page, July 12, 1927. The name Ross Island is correctly applied to the northwestward of two islands that lie near each other. The southeast island is known as Hardtack Island by decision of the USBGN. There is a third small island, not more than a gravel bar, lying westward of the south end of Ross Island. These islands are shown as Oak Islands in the atlas accompanying Wilkes' U. S. Exploring Expedition, volume XXIII, Hydrography. Early in 1943 Henry E. Reed of Portland sent the compiler additional information about the small gravel-bar island. A special plat of this island, approved by Surveyor-General E. L. Applegate on January 23, 1869, shows it as Toe Island, obviously because of its shape. Another survey was made in 1883 and the gravel bar was shown as Island No. 3. For additional information, see under HardTACK ISLAND. A good deal has been written about the famous Blue Ruin whisky of pioneer days and some narratives say it was made on Ross Island. It was a fluid of high voltage. Some early settlers drank it neat, or barefoot, as the saying goes. Others reduced its ferocity by making it into long toddy. Blue Ruin was probably made from a mash of wheat, shorts or middlings and molasses. The topers played bean poker for Blue Ruin. Every now and again temperance enthusiasts swooped down on the stills and dumped the stuff in the river.

Ross SLOUGH, Coos County. This is a tributary of Catching Slough, southeast of Coos Bay. It was named for Frank Ross, a respected pioneer resident of Coos County.

ROUEN GULCH, Baker County. Rouen Gulch drains northward from a spur of the Blue Mountains at a point about six miles west of Baker and whatever water it carries finds its way into Salmon Creek. According to Isaac Hiatt in Thirty-one Years in Baker County, page 33, the creek was named in the summer of 1862 by a prospector who found paying gold in the gulch. Hiait does not give this man's name, but says that he named the stream Ru Ann Creek for his eldest daughter. This is an unusual name for a girl, but of course not impossible. There is nothing to explain how the spelling got changed by later users, but Rouen has been the style for many years and is doubtless here to stay.

ROUGH AND READY CREEK, Josephine County. Rough and Ready Creek rises in the Siskiyou Mountains and flows eastward to join West Fork Illinois River. It Rows under the Redwood Highway about two miles north of O'Brien. Rough and Ready Creek was named in the mining excitement of the fifties when Waldo was a boom area in the Illinois Valley. Rough and Ready was the affectionate nickname given to General, later President, Zachary Tavlor. The stream was probably named by a veteran of the Mexican War who admired General Taylor, or perhaps for some miner named Tavlor who appropriated the nickname. The former is more likely. General Tavlor died in 1850 and the Josephine County goldrush began but a few years after that.

Round Prairie, Douglas County. Round Prairie is a well-known place on South Umpqua River between Roseburg and Myrtle Creek.