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CHAMPION CREEK, Lane County. Champion Creek, in the Bohemia mining district, was named for the Champion mine, which is situated near its headwaters. Champion post office was in operation in this locality from September, 1909, until October, 1918.
CHAMPLAIN, Multnomah County. A post office with the name Champlain was in service at Holbrook from January 27, 1892, to May 21, 1892, with Fred Gaskell postmaster. Information about the origin of the name is unsatisfactory. Holbrook post office had been in operation at or near this place from September, 1887, to October, 1888, when it was closed to Arthur. Millard C. Holbrook of Portland wrote the compiler in September, 1946, that Fred Gaskell was associated with his (Holbrook's) grandfather, Samuel Wilson, in a general merchandise store on the Holbrook farm. Gaskell applied for a post office to replace the discontinued office, and the name Champlain was suggested as being that of a nearby stream. The name Champlain was changed to Holbrook by postal authorities on May 21, 1892, and thus the old title was put back in service. Mr. Holbrook adds that the name Champlain is not known in the area and there does not seem to have been any stream called Champlain Creek. Just what Gaskell had in mind is a mystery.
CHAMPOEG, Marion County. The name Champoeg (Champooick, in early official records of the provisional government) is variously explained. According to F. X. Matthieu, the name was derived from the French words Campment du Sable, "camp of sand" (OHQ, volume I, page 88). According to other testimony, the origin is from French champ ("field"), and an Indian word, probably pooich ("root"); or the word may be purely Indian, designating a root or weed. According to H. S. Lyman, the name is not of French, but of Indian origin; Cham (hard ch), as in Chehalem, Chenamus, Chemeketa, Calapooya, OHQ, volume I, page 176. Frederick V. Holman says Cham poeg is an Indian word, Champoo, a weed, (ibid., volume XI, pages 22-23). Wilkes' map of 1841 shows Champooing. Champoeg was the site of the first warehouse of the Hudson's Bay Company on the Willamette River, south of Oregon City, and the shipping place of wheat of the Willamette Valler. The accessibility of Champoeg by land and water caused it to be chosen as the meeting place to consider a provisional government. The site of the Champoeg meeting place and monument is on the south bank of the Willamette River about midway between Newberg and Butteville. The settlement of Champoeg is about a half mile to the south on Mission Creek. Events leading up to the Champoeg meeting of May 2, 1813, are set forth in Scott's History of the Oregon Country, volume II, page 3, where begins Harvey W. Scott's address on the occasion of the unveiling of the Champoeg Monument on May 2, 1901. On February 15, 1841, Ewing Young died at a point not far from the present site of Newberg, and as he left considerable property and no heirs, the necessity of a civil government was manifest. Some little headway toward securing a government was made, but it was not until two years later that the movement acquired enough momentum to amount to anything. Two preliminary meetings were held in the spring of 1843, at the second of which a committee was appointed, and this committee was to report at a meeting to be held at Champoeg May 2, 1843. At the appointed time about an equal number of American and British citizens met, and by a narrow margin, the Americans gained control of the situation and started the organization that developed into the provisional government of Oregon, man, purely an Inder to ard
