Page:Oregon Geographic Names, third edition.djvu/546

 Jefferson. This lake was named in honor of Dr. Israel C. Russell, one of the early geologists of the U. S. Geological Survey, who was an investigator in Oregon beginning in the early '80s. His principal contribution to the knowledge of Oregon geology is USGS Bulletin 252, Geology and Water Resources of Central Oregon. Russell Lake forms South Fork Breitenbush River until late in the season, when evaporation reduces its level to a point below the outlet. Its elevation is about 5900 feet.

RUSSELLVILLE, Multnomah County. Russellville is a community on the Base Line road east of Portland and about a mile east of Montavilla. The best information available to the writer is to the effect that the locality was named in compliment to Russellville, Illinois. In July, 1947, Mrs. H. A. Lewis, a resident of the Russellville community, wrote the compiler that in 1888 Leander Lewis circulated a petition for a post office, and it was planned to use the name Lewisville. Officials at Washington would not approve this name because it duplicated the name of Lewisville in Polk County. Mr. Lewis then suggested Russellville in compliment to a place in Illinois where he had relatives. The Multnomah County office was established February 11, 1889, with George W. Stafford first of a long list of postmasters. Russellville post office was closed as of July 15, 1904, probably as the result of rural delivery. According to Mrs. Lewis the Russellville post office was for most of its life in a store on the north side of the Base Line road near the present Northeast Ninety-seventh Avenue.

RUSTLER PEAK, Jackson County. This peak in the Cascade Range is said to owe its name to an incident connected with stock rustlers in early days.

RUTLEDGE, Sherman County, Rutledge post office was established June 6, 1884, with Joseph H. Rutledge first postmaster. This office continued in service until March 23, 1908. It served a territory a few miles east-southeast of Grass Valley. For information about the Rutledge family, see Illustrated History of Central Oregon, page 520. "Uncle Joe" Rutledge and his family came to central Oregon from California in the fall of 1882 and took up land south of Moro. However, actual residence on the land did not begin until the spring of 1883.

RYE VALLEY, Baker County. When the immigrants and miners came to Oregon, natural forage was more suitable than gasoline to the motive power then available. A good many geographic features in the state have been named for the native grains and grasses that have grown so abundantly in favorable places. Rye Valley is a name that had its start in the mining boom in northeastern Oregon in the '60s. This valley is in the Dixie Creek drainage about thirty miles southeast of Baker. Rye Valley post office was established September 27, 1869, with Navson S. Whitcomb first postmaster. This office operated on and off for many years, but was not in service in 1945. A prominent mesa in eastern Crook County just southeast of Paulina bears the descriptive name Ryegrass Table. The writer does not know just what types of ryegrass grow in the locations mentioned. Peck, in his Manual of Higher Plants of Oregon, lists no less than thirteen varieties of ryegrass native to Oregon, but a number of them do not grow east of the Cascade Range. While contemplating the fascinating subject of rye it should be noted that there is a locality in Sherman County known as Bourbon. Geographic nomenclature plays no favorites.

SACAJAWEA PEAK, Wallowa County. This mountain is one of the