Page:Oregon Geographic Names, third edition.djvu/80



BOB CREEK, Wallowa County. Bob Creek flows into Snake River in section 10, township 3 north, range 50 east. J. H. Horner of Enterprise told the compiler in 1928 that the stream was named because Lu Knapper and some companions had an experience with several wildcats in this canyon in the late '80s.

BOHEMIA, Lane County, Bohemia Mountain in the Bohemia mining district is a well-known geographic feature in eastern Lane County. It was named for a wandering prospector and miner called Bohemia Johnson. For nearly thirty years there was a Bohemia post office serving this neighborhood. The office was established on the Douglas County list on April 26, 1893, with John B. McGee first of seven postmasters. The office oscillated back and forth between Douglas County and Lane County and for the last fifteen years of its life it was in Lane County. It was discontinued December 7, 1922, with mail to Disston. It is possible that some of the change in county lists was due to the moving of the Douglas-Lane boundary in this area.

BOHEMIA MOUNTAIN, Lane County. This mountain is one of the summits of the Calapooya Mountains, a spur of the Cascade Range, and is in what is generally referred to as the Bohemia mining district. It was named for a wandering mountaineer and prospector, James Johnson, who was supposed to have been born in Bohemia. He was popularly known as "Bohemia" Johnson. He discovered the Bohemia mines in 1863. See the Oregonian, January 20, 1900, and Scott's History of the Oregon Country, volume I, page 343. Bohna, Malheur County. Railroad company records indicate that this station near Malheur River was named for Ernest Bohna, who formerly owned land nearby. The siding is between Juntura and Harper.

BOILER BAY, Lincoln County. From time to time the Oregonian prints an editorial about an Oregon geographic name. These editorials, which are of a nice reading length, are frequently erudite and accurate, but beyond all that, they are always sprightly. Such an editorial appeared on November 10, 1942, and the secondary subject was Boiler Bay, though the title was otherwise. Boiler Bay, as many people know, is a little more than a mile north of Depoe Bay and is bounded on the west by a long, low promontory known as Government Point. The bay takes its name from a marine boiler "fast on a rocky shoal that is prolific of butter clams at low tide." The boiler and a shaft are the remains of a small freighter, the J. Marhoffer, built at Aberdeen, Washington, in 1907, and engaged in the coastwise trade. She was lost on May 18, 1910, enroute from San Francisco to the Columbia River, as the result of the explosion of a gasoline torch. The skipper brought the flaming ship to shore, and the crew, with one exception, was saved. The cook died of exposure. The captain had his wife along, and there are stories to the effect that she greatly inspired the shipwrecked sailors by her courage. A letter in the Oregonian for January 10, 1943, says that the early name for Boiler Bay was Briggs Landing, for a pioneer family. However, a bay and a landing are not exactly the same. Boiling Point, Umatilla County. Boiling Point, elevation about 3250 feet, is a place on the Oregon Trail on Emigrant Hill southeast of Pendleton. It got its name because it was the locality where the old teapot automobiles began to boil over on a hot day. Boiling Point post office was in service from November, 1932, to December, 1935. Arthur G. Greer was the only postmaster.