acquired during subsequent years and at the present time over 1000 acres are embraced in the camp site." This post has generally been used for summer camps of the Oregon National Guard.
CAMP COLFAX, Malheur County. This camp was used for a few months during the Indian wars of the '60s and is mentioned in the Oregon Adjutant General's Report, 1865-66. It is described as being where the Canyon City-Boise road crossed Willow Creek. The reminiscences of William M. Hilleary of F Compay of the First Oregon Volunteer Infantry are on file at the Oregon Historical Society and they have some amusing references to the post as well as some specific information. The company established Camp Colfax about August 24, 1865, on South Willow Creek about six miles east of Ironside Mountain. It was apparent that temporary protection would not stand against the weather, so in late October logs were snaked and hauled in from Ironside Mountain and at least two and maybe three cabins were built, with common walls so as to save logs. The roofs were poles and willows, covered with earth and there were good fireplaces of stone. The camp seems to have been used as a way-station by outfits other than F Company. The detachment proceeded to Fort Boise at the end of the year and Hilleary says with satisfaction that the cabins were set fire on December 27, 1865, and the soldiers marched away. He does not say for whom the camp was named, but it was probably intended to honor Schuyler Colfax, popular member of Congress from Indiana and in 1865 speaker of the House of Representatives. Colfax visited Oregon in the summer of that year.
CAMP CREEK, Clackamas County. This stream rises near Govern. ment Camp, and flows westward into Zigzag River. Laurel Hill, the terror of the emigrant trains, lies between these two streams like a wedge, and over its brow members of the Barlow party let their wagons down by ropes snubbed around the trees. It seems probable that this stream was named by Joel Palmer of the Barlow party on October 13, 1845. The day before Palmer made what may have been the first attempt by a white man to climb Mount Hood. He did not reach the top, but went far enough to satisfy himself that the mountain could be climbed. The details in his diary are not entirely clear as to how he got down nor where he camped, but the next morning he named a nearby stream Camp Creek, and it is the belief of the compiler that it is the Camp Creek of today that was so named, See Palmer's journal, Thwaites' Early Western Travels, volume XXX, page 137. It is possible that David Douglas, the botanist tried to climb Mount Hood in 1833. See letter from Archibald McDonald, OHQ, volume VI, page 309.
CAMP CREEK, Douglas County. This stream flows into Mill Creek, north of Loon Lake. Camp Creek was named in 1853 by a party from Scottsburg headed by S. S. Williams which camped on the stream on the way to Loon Lake. See Walling's History of Southern Oregon, page 439.
CAMP CREEK, Lane County. Camp Creek is a prominent stream that flows into McKenzie River from the north between Thurston and Walterville. It was called Camp Creek in very early pioneer days. There are two stories about the origin of the name, both of which may be true. One is that pioneer settlers found an Indian camp near the stream, called Chaston by the Indians themselves. On the other hand Walling, in Illustrated History of Lane County, page 468, says that the stream was named because a party of pioneers chasing Indian stock thieves camped there.
