Goose Lake and drains several townships. There are a score of Cottonwood creeks in Oregon, and all serve to testify to the popularity (no pun intended) of members of the Populus group, including Populus angustifolia, Populus trichocarpa and others. General H. M. Chittenden, in The American Fur Trade of the Far West, says that one of, if not the most important tree in the fur trade business was the cottonwood. Not only were cottonwoods beautiful trees, but lines of them were welcome sights to the trappers and travelers, indicating water courses and fuel supplies. They provided shelter in winter and summer and rather surprisingly, fairly good horse feed. Ponies ate and throve on cottonwood bark quite successfully. Most of the Cottonwood creeks in Oregon have borne their names so long that it is impossible to say who named them.
COTTRELL, Clackamas County. Cottrell is a crossroads locality in the extreme north part of the county on the Bluff Road about five miles north-northwest of Sandy. The post office was established March 26, 1894, with Charles Andrews first of two postmasters. The office was closed June 29, 1904, probably because of the extension of rural free delivery. In addition to the locality Cottrell, there is a Cottrell School nearly a mile eastward, and at one time there was a station Cottrell on the Mount Hood electric railway about a mile north of the community. This station was in Multnomah County, but the electric railway and station have been abandoned. Cottrell was named for the family of Mrs. Charles Andrews, nee Cottrell. Couch LAKE, Multnomah County. It is not surprising that thousands of Portland residents have never heard of Couch Lake but in the flood of June, 1948, this pond made an effort to reestablish itself. Its success was short-lived. Couch Lake was in the vicinity of Portland Union Station. It was named for Captain John Couch, one of the founders of Portland. An account of Captain Couch and his activities will be found in Oregon Pioneer Association Transactions for 1886. Captain Couch built a home on the west bank of this lake according to an article in the Oregon Sunday Journal for October 20, 1946. The lake covered about twenty-two Portland city blocks and had a depth of about fifteen feet. The compiler has a dim recollection of this body of water of about 1890 and as he recalls it the lake had been reduced in size by that time. In the '80s this lake and surrounding land was bought by the Northern Pacific Terminal Company which had been organized in 1881. The first contract for filling the lake was let in 1888. The material used was ballast from incoming ships and sand from the river bed. The Union Station was formally opened February 14, 1896, and the first train left it that evening. There was much delay between the time the property was purchased and the time the station was completed due to financial problems. The architects of the station were Van Brunt & Howe of Kansas City. If McKim, Mead and White of New York ever drew any plans for this station, as has been reported, they were not used.
COUNCIL BUTTE, Klamath County. This butte is near Sprague River about two miles from Yainax. The USBGN adopted the name Council Butte in 1927, thus bringing to an end a controversy of many years standing. Gatschet, in Dictionary of the Klamath Language, uses the name Yainaga for this butte. Yainaga is the diminutive of yaina, meaning hill or mountain. For many years the butte has been officially known as Council Butte, and the name Yainax Butte became transferred to a
