BUTTE FALLS AREA PLACE NAMES MT. MCLOUGHLIN--This is the really big one. The number of names the mountain has had is truly mind-boggling,“ It deserves the moniker, “A Mountain of Many Names.” Fortunately smarter people than me have done the leg-work researching all the names. Lets start with English language names. The first white-man to name it was Peter Skene Ogden a Hudson’s Bay fur trapper. He viewed it in 1827. He named it Mt. Sastise for the Shasta Indians that guided him into the Rogue Valley. Not long after that his name changed spelling and was transferred to the mountain we know as Shasta and our mountain took the name Mt. Pit, the name Shasta previously had. Over the years the name has had two spellings Pit and Pitt. This name has continued on and many people in the Butte Falls area still use it today, including me. At some point an Oregon legislator decided to name all of the major Cascade peaks after Presidents. He named our mountain Mt. John Quincy Adams. The name didn’t stick, but Mt Jefferson and Mt. Washington still retain those names. Various groups of pioneers each had their own names for the peak including Mt. Clear View, Snowy Butte and Big Butte, from which Big Butte Creek gets its name. When I came to Butte Falls there was a woman’s organization in the Rogue Valley called the Snowy Butte Society. I don’t know if it is still in existence. Are you confused yet? There’s more. In 1905 the Oregon State legislature officially name it Mt. McLoughlin after Dr. John McLoughlin, the “Father of Oregon.” But even then there was confusion. Some maps showed it spelled McLoughlin with an “o” and some McLaughlin with an “a.” The proper spelling is with an “o.” I looked it up! Many locals scoffed at the change and continued to call it Mt Pit. Now we get to the Native American names. Below I list the tribes and the known names they used. These names often refer to characters in their oral legends. Some tribes had more than one name. Takelma (Rogue Valley Indians): Mal-sr, Alwilamchaldis, Tasuune. Klamath: Walum, Kesh yainatat. Modoc: Melaiksi Shasta: Makayax Besides these we know that other tribes could view the mountain from their homelands and no doubt had names; the inland Umpqua, the Pauite of far eastern Oregon, and the Pit River Indians of northern California. The far ranging tribes of northern Oregon who often traded with the Klamath’s, like the Nez Perce, used the mountain as a guidepost and certainly had their own names. No one can know how many names the mountain has had, but to those of us that have the pleasure of viewing the mountain daily it hardly matters. We are truly blessed. A snow covered Mt. Pit in a red sunset is a beautiful sight indeed and fills one with a awe at the wonders of nature. Lloyd
Posted on: Fri, 12 Jul 2013 14:34:08 +0000
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