Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly vol. 26.djvu/453

 and lies between Phantom Ship and Eagle Point. It was named by Will G. Steel for a minor deity of the Klamath Indians. A. S. Gatschet in his Dictionary of the Klamath Language gives the word as Tchashkai, meaning weasel. The "Weaslet" was a mythical being often alluded to by western Indians, and conjurers frequenty mentioned weasels because of their curious freaks and jumps.

, Washington and Yamhill Counties. These are the highest mountains in the Willamette Valley, and that section of the valley north of them is generally known as the Tualatin Valley, being drained by the Tualatin River. The Chehalem Mountains and some more or less independent spurs extend from the Willamette River east of Newberg northwest to the foothills of the Coast Range south of Forest Grove. The highest known point at the southern end is due north of Newberg, and has an elevation of 1447 feet. At a point on the northern end east of Wapato is a summit about 1675 feet in elevation, called Bald Peak. Chehalem is doubtless an Indian word, and was probably applied to a point near the mouth of what is now known as Chehalem Creek. Silas B. Smith of Clatsop County refers to such a point as Cham-ho-kuc, but gives no meaning or explanation. Chehalem may be derived from it. See Oregon Historical Society Quarterly, volume I, page 323.

, Marion County. Chemawa is one of the Indian names in the state that has several fanciful meanings attributed to it, including "our old home," "true talk" and "gravelly soil." There is little on record to substantiate any of these meanings. Silas B. Smith, Clatsop County pioneer, is authority for the statement that Chemayway was the Indian name for a point on the Willamette River about two and a half miles south of Fairfield where Joseph Gervais settled in 1827-28. The same name was also applied to Wapato Lake. Indian names were bestowed generally on account of physical peculiarity, and