name is said to have been selected by B. L. Milligan who settled in the locality in the early '80s and was later county school superintendent.
KALEETAN BUTTE, Deschutes County. This butte near Devils Lake is named with the Chinook jargon word for arrow.
KAMELA, Union County. The compiler has been furnished with several explanations as to how this community got its name, and there is much discrepancy in the various stories that are told. Several early residents of northeastern Oregon say that the word was made up by combining the initials of civil engineers during railroad construction but this is not agreed to by other equally reliable pioneers who say that the word is Cayuse Indian for a tree. Kamela was, during the stagecoach period, known as Summit station. This was unsatisfactory to the railroad company and J. C. Mayo of Stayton informed the compiler in 1927 that Dr. W. C. McKay was asked to furnish a number of names of Indian origin which could be used at various points on the line. From this list Kamela was selected. Mr. Mayo said it meant black pine, although as far as the compiler knows there are not many of these trees in the neighborhood. The official interpreter at Umatilla Agency said in 1927 that Kamela was a Nez Perce word meaning tamarack, and this ought to settle the matter. Miss L. C. McKay, daughter of Dr. McKay, was certain that the word means summit. There was at one time a station on the railroad known as Mikecha, which was made up from the names of civil engineers, and the writer is of the opinion that this name has been confused with Kamela by those who think that Kamela was a compiled name. Mikecha was at or near the station now known as Gibbon.
KANE CREEK, Jackson County. According to Walling, in History of Southern Oregon, page 377, the stream near Gold Hill was named for a Doctor Kane who settled nearby in 1853. It was at one time known as T'Vault Creek for W. G. TÄVault, Oregon's pioneer editor, who lived at Dardanelles, near what is now Gold Hill.
KANSAS CITY, Washington County. Kansas City is the name of a crossroads community about six miles north-northwest of Forest Grove. It is said that the name was applied because some settlers from Kansas City, Missouri, established themselves there. The writer has not been able to find the name Kansas City on the Washington County post office list and apparently the locality never had a post office called Kansas City.
KAPKA BUTTE, Deschutes County. This butte near Tumalo Mountain was named with the Klamath Indian word for lodgepole pine.
KARLSON ISLAND, Clatsop County. Karlson Island is in the south part of Columbia River near Knappa. It has been variously known as Carlson, Carlsen and Karlson. Arthur Dempsie of Astoria informed the compiler that the United States issued a patent on the land on the island in December, 1892, running to the name of Karl Karlson. The property was apparently a homestead. The transaction is filed in Clatsop County Transfer Records, volume 26, page 84, Government certificate 2576. In 1941 Mrs. Karlson was still alive and vigorous. The USBGN has adopted the spelling Karlson, although some of the younger members of the family spell the name Carlson.
KASKELA, Wasco County. This is a railway station on the east side of Deschutes River in the south part of the county. The name was suggested by Malcolm A. Moody. Kaskela was the first Warm Springs Indian chief after the establishment of the agency.
KATSUK BUTTE, Deschutes County. This butte, west of Sparks
