Page:Oregon Geographic Names, third edition.djvu/226

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. H. Packwood was a moving spirit in the business. The ditch gathered the waters of a number of tributaries on the south side of Burnt River and conveyed them eastward to a pass in the ridge south of Burnt River called Shasta Gap. It went through this pass toward Shasta Gulch and the Willow Creek drainage, where it was extensively used in mining. The ditch was originally about 135 miles long. In recent years it has been used for irrigation.

ELEPHANT MOUNTAIN, Douglas County. This is in the northeast part of the county northwest of Diamond Lake, and has an elevation of 5950 feet. The name was applied by V. V. Harpham and O. C. Houser, of the Forest Service, in 1908, because the mountain when viewed from the west is suggestive both in shape and size, of the animal whose name it bears.

ELGAROSE, Douglas County. Elgarose, a post office in the southeast part of township 26 south, range 7 west, a couple of miles northwest of Melrose, was named by the first postmaster, John E. Carlson, for Elgarose or Elgaras, in Sweden. The Reverend Mr. Carlson was born in the place in Sweden, and thought to perpetuate its name in Douglas County when the opportunity presented itself. Elgarose post office was established January 28, 1916, with Carlson postmaster. The office was closed November 27, 1924, and the business turned over to Melrose. Elgin, Union County. In early days the locality of Elgin was called Fishtrap, because of the presence of Indian fishing gear. Elgin post office was established on September 28, 1885, with W. B. Hamilton postmaster. A news story in the Elgin Recorder for February 18, 1932, is authority for the statement that when the application for a post office was being prepared, Hamilton heard his niece and nephew, Lottie and Charlie Hamilton, singing about the wreck of the steamer Lady Elgin, and he was so impressed by the name that he suggested the title Elgin for the post office. The news item in the Recorder is based on a statement from C. W. Hamilton, then 88 years old and living on Lower Cove market road. Presumably he was the nephew, Charlie Hamilton. The compiler has been unable to learn that the community was named for Elgin, Illinois. The wreck of the Lady Elgin was one of the worst lacustrine disasters in the history of the United States. This steamer was loaded with a group called the Union Guard, composed of Third Ward boys of Milwaukee, who formed an excursion to attend a mass meeting in the presidential campaign of 1860, The Union Guard went to Chicago to hear their favorite, Stephen A. Douglas, on September 7. The excursion and the political rally were highly successful, and the happy crowd started back for Milwaukee, Irish lads and lassies dancing as the boat ploughed through a Lake Michigan fog. About midnight the Lady Elgin was hit by a lumber schooner, the Augusta, which proceeded on her way after being assured that the Lady Elgin was not seriously damaged. This was a mistake, because the steamer sank in a short time, with a loss of nearly 300 lives. This disaster was the subject of a lugubrious ballad that was popular for a couple of decades, and the community of Elgin, Oregon, appears to have been named for the melancholy song, "Lost on the Lady Elgin."

ELIOT GLACIER, Hood River County. Eliot Glacier is one of the larger glaciers on Mount Hood and occupies the northeast part of the mountain north of Cooper Spur. It is the source of Eliot Branch, and