Page:Oregon Geographic Names, third edition.djvu/693

This page needs to be proofread.

the Applegate brothers. The valley and the town were named for a prominent bald mountain to the northwest, which was known by the Indians as Yoncalla, or the home of the eagles. Eagles made their nests and reared their young on this butte. It is said that Jesse Applegate applied the name to the community. Bancroft, in History of Oregon, volume II, page 225, footnote, says the word is composed of yonc, eagle, and calla or calla-calla meaning bird or fowl in the Indian dialect. The compiler has been unable to identify the word yonc in any Indian dictionary available. The Chinook jargon borrowed the word kal-lak'-a-la, meaning bird, from the Chinook Indian language. The accent given by George Gibbs is on the second syllable, but the compiler heard the word frequently in the Willamette Valley in the '80s and '90s pronounced as though spelled cully-cully, with the accent on the first syllable of each part. This word was used by Indians in referring to birds generally but more especially to game birds such as grouse and quail. It seems to have been the same word used by Applegate in his name Yoncalla. Yoncalla post ofhce was established on March 14, 1851, with James B. Riggs postmaster. Jesse Applegate became postmaster on September 15, 1851.

YONNA VALLEY, Klamath County. Yonna Valley was at one time known as Alkali Valley, but that name was abandoned some time ago for the Klamath Indian name. Yonna may come from yana, meaning below, or low down, referring to the lower altitude of the valley, or it may be from yaina, meaning mountain. There are mountains nearby. There was at one time a post office at Yonna, in Yonna Valley northeast of Dairy. Youngs BUTTE, Grant County. This butte, elevation 5330 feet, southwest of Dayville, was named for John M. Young, a Civil War veteran who lived on Youngs Creek, under the butte.

YOUNGS RIVER, Clatsop County. Lieutenant William Robert Broughton of Vancouver's expedition, discovered and explored Youngs Bay and Youngs River on October 22, 1792. He named Youngs River for Sir George Young of the royal navy. The bay took its name from the river. Lewis and Clark named the bay Meriwether Bay for Meriwether Lewis, just as they named Tongue Point William for William Clark, but neither of these new names was able to supplant the names attached to the features by Lieutenant Broughton in 1792. The Lewis and Clark maps indicate that Youngs River was called Kilhowanahkle River by the explorers, apparently from the Indian name, but Silas B. Smith is authority for the statement that this was the name of a place on the river and not of the river itself. Admiral Sir George Young was born in 1732 and became a midshipman in the royal navy in 1757. He served at various important stations and reached the position of flag captain to Sir Edward Vernon in the East Indies in 1777. He was knighted in 1781 and became an admiral in 1799. He was a fellow of the Royal Society and actively sup. ported a proposal of Jean Maria Matra for establishing a colony in New South Wales in 1784. He was the promoter and one of the first proprietors of the Sierra Leone Company in 1791. He died in 1810.

YOUTLKUT BUTTE, Lake County. This butte is just south of the Paulina Mountains. It was named by the Forest Service with the Chinook jargon word for long.


ZENA, Polk County. Zena is a community in the southeastern part of Eola Hills. It was named for Arvazena Cooper, wife of Daniel Jack-