Page:Oregon Geographic Names, third edition.djvu/122

This page needs to be proofread.

tions for the day by expressing a doubt that Cook saw Cape Blanco or any other cape south of Cape Gregory on March 12, 1778, and stated that it was fair to presume that what Cook saw was an inland mountain. Notwithstanding all these facts the name Cape Blanco has persisted for the most western cape of Oregon, even though it may not have originally been applied to it, and Vancouver's name Cape Orford has fallen into disuse and has been decided against by the USBGN. Part of the name is still in use in Port Orford, which is just south of the cape. Cape Alava, Clallam County, Washington, is the most westward point in continental United States, with a longitude of 124° 44'. It is in approximate latitude 48° 10'. It is more than 10 of longitude further west than Cape Blanco. Authorities are not unanimous as to the color of Cape Blanco, but George Davidson, whose opinion carries great weight, says in the Coast Pilot for 1869 that the rocks were of a dull white appearance but bright when the sun shone on them. However, this is probably more or less true of other capes in the neighborhood. For illustrated story about Cape Blanco and the lighthouse, by Alfred Powers, see the Oregonian, Sunday, September 15, 1915.

CAPE FALCON, Tillamook County. Cape Falcon is the next cape south of Arch Cape, and has been known in the past as False Tillamook Head, which lies further north. On August 18, 1775, Captain Bruno Heceta, while cruising along the north Pacific Coast discovered a cape in latitude 45° 43' north and named it Cape Falcon. While this is not far from the correct latitude of what we now know as Cape Falcon, 45° 46', the records of Heceta are so meager as to make it impossible exactly to identify his discovery. Cape Falcon as we now know it derived its name from Heceta, irrespective of what point he originally discovered. The present application of the name was made by George Davidson of the U. S. Coast Survey in 1853, as being preferable to a name with the "false" in it. Heceta speaks of Cape Falcon, but Fray Benito de la Sierra, one of his chaplains, uses the expression "a range of high hills, to which we gave the name Sierra de Montefalcon." See California Historical Society Quarterly, volume IX, page 235. The day of Santa Clara de Montefalco is August 18, and this name was obviously given in her honor. Cape Falcon has been the cause of considerable misunderstanding among students of Oregon history. Greenhow, in his History of Oregon and California, appears to have started the trouble by confusing Cape Falcon, or as it was sometimes known, False Tillamook Head, with Clarks Point of View. This he does in two places, once in chapter IV and another time in appendix E. This error has been perpetuated by both great authorities on the Lewis and Clark expedition, Coues and Thwaites. As a matter of fact Clarks Point of View was on Tillamook Head, as is clearly shown by Clark's description of the view he had from the point and also by two maps in Original Journals of the Lewis and Clark Expedition, atlas volume. Davidson perceived this error. See Coast Pilot for 1869. However, Davidson was of the opinion that the Cape Grenville of Meares was the same as Cape Falcon, but this seems improbable to the writer. At the time of his discovery of Cape Falcon, Heceta also named La Mesa or The Table, putting it some 15 minutes of latitude further south than the cape, with no indication as to whether it was an inland mountain or not. It seems to the compiler that La Mesa must have been what is now Cape Meares, or some flat-topped mountain inland. It is improbable that the name La