Springs. About 1882 C. A. Williams opened a store there and Erskineville post office was established December 19, 1882, with Abiel Erskine postmaster. When the railroad was built through, the shorter name Erskine was used for the station. Erskineville post office was closed April 20, 1907, but the locality still goes by the name Erskine.
ERWIN, Baker County. The place called Erwin was named for a well known stockman, John Erwin, who was born in New York state in 1839 and settled in Oregon in 1868. He served in the Civil War and was wounded. He developed a stock ranch in Lower Powder Valley northeast of Baker. His biography is in the History of Baker, Malheur and Harney Counties, page 304. Erwin post office was established July 13, 1892, with Mrs. Elizabeth A. Pierce first postmaster. The office was closed as of November 15, 1910. Gill's map of Oregon, 1911, shows Erwin in section 17, township 8 south, range 42 east, a little northwest of Keating. The name of Erwin post office was not changed to Keating as is sometimes reported.
ESTACADA, Clackamas County, Estacada is a Spanish word and means staked out, or marked with stakes, and the principal use of the name in the United States is in northwestern Texas where the form Llano Estacado is employed to describe a tract of land that would be called in English Staked Plain. The Spanish name refers to the trunks of an upright desert plant that remain standing like stakes or poles over an area of many hundred square miles. The name was used in Oregon because it had a pleasing sound, with no thought of its original significance. In the summer of 1927 a number of letters were written to the Oregonian asserting that Estacada was named for a girl whose name was first given as Esther Keady or Esther Cady, and by later correspondents as Esther Williams. These letters were printed on the editorial page of the Oregonian for July 16, 25 and 27. Other letters denying this version and supporting the Llano Estacado version were printed on July 18, 23, and 29. W. P. Keady was a right of way agent for the railroad company that built into that section of Clackamas County, and on April 7, 1909, he wrote from Spokane, Washington, to L. E. Belfils, Estacada, and gave his story of the application of the name. The letter is too long to quote in full, but the substance is that on December 27, 1903, a meeting was held at the office of the Oregon Water Power Townsite Company, First and Alder streets, Portland. Townsite and railroad company officials suggested various names, as follows: G. W. Morrow suggested Rochester; W. H. Hurlburt suggested Lowell; W. P. Keady suggested Lynn and George J. Kelly suggested Estacado. Kelly's suggested name, Estacado, was drawn from a hat, and adopted for the townsite, but through an error in drafting, was filed as Estacada. One of Keady's sons was named Lynn, which was probably the reason for the suggestion of the name Lynn mentioned above. George J. Kelly, in a letter on the editorial page of the Oregonian, July 23, 1927, gives his version of the matter, which is substantially the same as Keady's, except that he says he was responsible for the change from Estacado to Estacada. He was chief clerk in the office, and selected the name at random from a map of the United States which showed Llano Estacado, in Texas. The compiler of these notes spent several weeks in Estacada shortly after the town was established and was informed by a number of persons at the time that the Llano Estacado of Texas was the origin of the name.
