It now contains 20 families." Stayton was platted in 1872, and the post office established on May 7 of that year. Samuel D. McCauley was first postmaster.
STEAMBOAT, Jackson County. Many old mining camps have this name applied to one or more geographic features, and it does not mean that a steamboat has ever been in the neighborhood. When mines have been worked out, or where prospects do not come up to expectations, either naturally or through fraud, they are said by miners to have been "steamboated." In addition to a place and a mountain in the southwest part of Jackson County bearing this name, there is also a creek named Steamboat which rises in the Calapoova Mountains in Lane County and flows through Douglas County into North Umpqua River. It is said to have received its name in this manner.
STEAMBOAT CREEK, Wallowa County. Steamboat Creek flows into Snake River in township 4 south, range 49 east. In the early '90s the steamboat Norma, on her way down the river from Weiser, hung up on a rock near the mouth of this stream, which was named for the event.
STEAMBOAT LAKE, Wallowa County. So called because of a rock in the lake resembling a steamboat. The lake is about 18 miles airline south of Lostine.
STEARNS BUITE, Crook County. This butte, four miles south of Prineville, is at the S. S. Stearns ranch, and got its name on that account. A prominent tree on the summit was for many years a surveyorsbearing mark.
STEEL BAY, Crater Lake National Park, Klamath County. This bay is at the north shore of Crater Lake, and was named in honor of Will G. Steel, for a half a century a prominent explorer, mountaineer and nature lover of Oregon. William Gladstone Steel was born in Stafford, Ohio, September 7, 1854, the son of William and Elizabeth Steel. His father's mother, Jean Gladstone, was a sister of Thomas Gladstone, Jr., and was therefore the great aunt of William Ewart Gladstone who became premier of England. Steel moved to Pittsburgh with his parents in 1865 and in 1868 to Kansas. Here the boy read an account of the discovery of a mysterious lake in Oregon. This fired his imagination and filled him with a desire to come to this state and see the natural wonder. He reached Oregon in 1872, and it was nine years before he could get authoritative data about the lake he was looking for. He finally visited Crater Lake in 1885, and immediately started a movement to have the locality made a national park. He was successful in this after 17 years of effort. Steel devoted a large part of his life to matters pertaining to the natural history and attractions of the Pacific Northwest and was the authority on Crater Lake. He died at Medford October 21, 1934.
STEEL CLIFF, Hood River County. This cliff is on the south face of Mount Hood, and was named for Will G. Steel by E. L. Coldwell, better known as Jerry Coldwell, for many years a reporter on the Oregonian.
STEENS MOUNTAIN, Harney County. The first reference to this mountain that the writer has seen is in the journal of John Work, for Friday, June 29, 1831. See OHQ, volume XIV, page 308. Work describes the mountain as covered with snow. Pioneer maps use the name of Snow Mountains for the range. In 1860 a joint expedition was
