Page:Oregon Geographic Names, third edition.djvu/675

 ments, shows the lower part of the stream as Multnomah or Wilhamet. The upper part is lettered Walla Matte. In 1841 Charles Wilkes used the spelling Willamette and this is the style throughout U. S. Exploring Expedition and atlas, 1845, as well as on the large charts prepared by Wilkes. Wilkes appears to have crystallized government use in favor of Willamette. For many references to the controversy over the spelling of the name, see OHQ, volume XLIV, page 360. The meaning of the word Willamette is not known, although there are several theories. Broughton discovered the river on October 29, 1792, and named it the River Mannings, possibly for Boatswain's Mate Samuel Manning, a member of Vancouver's expedition. Lewis and Clark did not observe the stream on their westward trip, nor on their eastward trip either until their attention was called to it by Indians after they had gone as far as Sandy River. Clark went back and entered the Willamette on April 2, 1806, calling it the Multnomah.

WILLAMETTE SLOUGH, Multnomah County. Willamette Slough post office was in service from February 10, 1873, to February 8, 1887, at a point on the mainland northwest of Linnton, and about opposite the south end of Sauvie Island. The office may have moved from time to time depending on who was postmaster. Thomas J. Howell, Oregon's famous botanist, was first to hold the office. The office was named for the channel on the west side of Sauvie Island, formerly Willamette Slough, now officially known as Multnomah Channel.

WILLAMETTE STONE, Multnomah and Washington counties. The Willamette Stone is a surveyor's monument at the intersection of the Willamette baseline and the Willamette meridian in the hills west of Portland. The mark was established on June 4, 1851, by John B. Preston, the first surveyor general of Oregon. The original mark was not a stone but a stake. This stake was officially replaced on July 25, 1885, by the present Willamette Stone. The replacement was carried on by another surveyor, W. B. Marye, and other officials, who made the replacement the occasion of a small ceremony. Preston selected the site of the Willamette Stone because it was thought at that time that the meridian surveved north from the stone would pass through the mouth of the Willamette River. The base line was established in its present location so that it would not cross the Columbia River and thus produce difficulties in surveying. In 1903 the USC&GS extended the triangulation net to include the Willamette Stone. The geographic position of the stone, based on the 1927 datum, is 45° 31' 10."831 in latitude and 122° 44' 33." 551 in longitude.

WILLAMINA, Yamhill County. The community of Willamina was named for Willamina Creek, and the stream was named for Mrs. Willamina Williams, who is said to have been the first white woman to ride a horse across it. Some written reminiscences of Enos C. Williams are on file at the Oregon Historical Society. He says that Mrs. Williams was born in 1817 in Ohio and was married to James Maley in March, 1837, apparently in Illinois. Mrs. Maley came to Oregon in 1845 with her husband and her stepdaughter and in the spring of 1846 the Maley family and a man named Burden went prospecting for land on which to settle. They found a stream flowing into South Yamhill River in the foothills of the Coast Range and named it in compliment to Mrs. Maley. Maley died in 1847 and on February 24, 1848, Enos C. Williams and