Page:Oregon Geographic Names, third edition.djvu/656

This page needs to be proofread.

and the lakes are also shown on the map of the Territory of Oregon, prepared by direction of Colonel J. J. Abert of the U. S. Topographical Engineers, 1838. The compiler is of the opinion that John Work of the Hudson's Bay Company visited the Warner Valley October 12-15, 1832. See California Historical Society Quarterly, September, 1943, page 203. Work left the main party to explore what "might with propriety be called the valley of the lakes," and there is an implication that the old hands had been there before. When Work made his little exploration, he took along C. Plante and J. Favel, two of his good men. Charles Plante was also know as Plant and it seems obvious that Plants River bears his name. Work gives a good description of Warner Valley and its string of lakes. Fremont explored what is now known as Warner Valley in December, 1843, and named one of the Warner Lakes Christmas Lake. This was probably Hart Lake of the present day. For many years the Warner Valley was known as Christmas Lake Valley, but the name of Christmas Lake was transferred to another and much less important body of water by a curious transfer that the writer is unable to explain. See under CHRISTMAS LAKE. Captain Warner, together with Lieutenant R. S. Williamson, left Sacramento in August, 1849, for the purpose of exploring the upper reaches of Pit River. Unfortunate delays hindered the work. Finally the leaders separated, Williamson remained at Goose Lake, while Warner went north to Lake Abert, and then to Warner Valley. He worked south along the west edge of the valley until his party was ambushed and massacred. Williamson gives September 26, 1849, as the date of the massacre, and his map shows the place just south of the 42nd parallel. Williamson's map in Pacific Railroad Surveys Reports is on a large scale and shows the site of the massacre about four miles south of the state line. In 1864, Lieutenant-Colonel C. S. Drew of the First Oregon Cavalry, during the Owyhee Reconnoissance, visited and named Warner Valley for the murdered officer, in the belief that Warner had been killed in the valley itself. Drew says in his report that John S. Drum of Jacksonville told him later that Warner was killed in Surprise Valley, and not in Oregon. Drum was a member of the party that went to find Warner's remains in 1850. While it seems apparent that Warner was killed south of the state line, and not in Warner Valley, it also seems clear that he was not killed as far south as Surprise Valley. The massacre was possibly near Eightmile Creek. For additional information about Warner's death, see Gold Rush, Columbia University, New York, 1944, page 624, et seq. The principal lakes and playas of Warner Valley, beginning on the north, are as follows: Bluejoint Lake. Flagstaff Lake. Hart Lake. Stone Corral Lake. Mugwump Lake. Crump Lake. Lower Campbell Lake. Swamp Lake. Pelican Lake. Campbell Lake. Anderson Lake. The best information about Warner Valley may be obtained from the co-operative irrigation report issued by the state engineer entitled Warner Valley and White River Projects.

WARREN, Columbia County. Warren post office was established on February 19, 1885. James Gill, later a resident of Newberg, named the place for his old home, Warren, Massachusetts. In 1888 the post office was discontinued and when it was reestablished two years later it