Page:Oregon Geographic Names, third edition.djvu/596

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Strassel. She was an early settler, who took up a homestead, and with pioneer spirit made a home in what had been a wilderness. When the railroad was built near her place, E. E. Lytle, president of the Pacific Railway and Navigation Company, named a station for her, and later a post office was established with the same name.

STRAW FORK, Wheeler County. This stream flows into Butte Creek southeast of Fossil. It was named for Al Straw who settled there about 1869. See History of Central Oregon, page 640. Stories to the effect that the stream was named for strawstacks are wrong.

STRAWBERRY, Morrow County. Strawberry is a locality about nine miles north of Lexington, named for the wild strawberries that grow there. The place has not grown into a community, Strawberry post office was established March 7, 1904, with Jesse C. White first and only postmaster. The office was discontinued December 31, 1908. Expected development did not become a fact.

STRAWBERRY MOUNTAIN, Grant County. Patsy Daly of Prairie City, for many years a resident of the John Day country, told the compiler in 1927 that white settlers and miners first called this mountain Logan Butte for Camp Logan, nearby. This was in the '60s. To the north of the butte was Strawberry Creek, so called because of the wild strawberries growing on its banks. Gradually the name Strawberry spread to the valley and to the butte, so that the forms Strawberry Valley and Strawberry Butte came into universal use. The name Logan Butte became obsolete. During the past three decades the name Strawberry Mountain has supplanted Strawberry Butte, and the form with the word "Mountain" now appears on official maps. It seems to be in general use. It is the highest point in the southwest part of the Blue Mountains. The elevation determined by the USGS is 9052 feet.

STRING CREEK, Clackamas County. This stream is in the Salmon River drainage basin. It was named because of its small, stringy appearance.

STRINGTOWN, Clackamas County. There are several localities in Oregon called Stringtown, generally because they are or were strung out along a road or highway. One of the best known with this name is about a mile southwest of Canemah. It was called Stringtown long ago, long before there was a through highway. There were a number of houses built on the narrow strip between the railroad and the steep bluff to the southeast, and these houses were called Stringtown, especially by people living in more thickly settled areas such as Oregon City and Canemah. The place is now well known because it is on the Pacific Highway East.

STUKEL MOUNTAIN, Klamath County. Stukel Mountain was named for Stephen Stukel, a pioneer settler. It is about ten miles southeast of Klamath Falls, and is shown on some maps as Laki Peak, but it is not known by that name locally. Laki is probably derived from the Klamath Indian word laki meaning chief.

STURGEON LAKE, Columbia and Multnomah counties. Omar C. Spencer of Sauvie Island in a letter of January 18, 1946, says inter alia: "Before the hand of man despoiled its natural characteristics through the medium of the public levee built at government expense, Sturgeon Lake was a large body of water consisting of approximately 2500 acres, through which Gilbert River found its way to an outlet in Multnomah