some pole bridges over what is now Bridge Creek. This fact gave rise to the name. The stream is southwest of Austin.
BRIDGE CREEK, Marion County. Bridge Creek is a stream southwest of Silverton, the waters of which find their way into Abiqua Creek, but the compiler does not know just how. He has been told that the stream was named in pioneer days because of a convenient bridge, but he does not know its location. Bridge Creek post office was established near this stream in November, 1919, and operated until November, 1923, when it was closed to Hullt. Edward Trenter was the only postmaster. This office was a little to the east of Hullt, near the north quartercorner of section 9, township 8 south, range 2 east. It was very close to the old Bridge Creek school and the two establishments were both named for the stream. In 1932-33 a new post office called Cedar Camp was in service in the same location with Mrs. Edith M. Filer postmaster. Cedar Camp was apparently named because of the cedar lumber and shingle making in the vicinity.
BRIDGE CREEK, Wheeler County. This stream heads in the mountains in the south part of the county, and flows into John Day River. One branch flows through Mitchell. H. H. Bancroft in his History of Oregon, volume I, page 787, says that it was named because Shoeman and Wadley, California prospectors, built a small bridge over it of juniper logs, while enroute to the John Day mines. This was about 1862. On July 2, 1868, a post office named Bridge Creek was established in what is now Wheeler County with Alfred Sutton postmaster. Sutton was a prominent Wasco and Wheeler county pioneer. Sutton Mountain north of Mitchell bears his name. Bridge Creek post office, which was finally closed in 1882, was on the Sutton place, which was very close to the mouth of the stream, where it joined John Day River.
BRIDGEPORT, Baker County. C. A. Moore, of Baker, in a letter in the Oregonian, August 7, 1926, page 8, gives the early history of this community. In 1861-63 considerable placer gold was discovered at Clark Creek, several miles southeast of Bridgeport. Supplies were packed from Baker over the old Creighton road, crossing Burnt River near where Hereford now is, and then down the river on the south side to these mines, where there were some stores and a post office. Bridgeport is on the south bank of the river, which could not then be forded. The need for a wagon road and a shorter route to Clark Creek led Dr. Jacob M. Boyd and James W. Virtue and associates, in 1868, to begin the construction of a toll road from Baker to what is now Bridgeport, and in 1869 this road was made passable for the entire distance. At the south end of the road, where it crossed the river, there was a bridge some 200 feet long, and since this bridge was the terminus of the toll road, it was decided to call the place Bridgeport.
BRIDGEPORT, Polk County. Bridgeport is an unorganized locality on Little Luckiamute River about three miles east or downstream from Falls City. It is said to have been named for a pioneer bridge over the stream, but the compiler does not know the exact location of the structure. Bridge Port post office was established June 1, 1854, with Samuel T. Scott first postmaster. The name of the office was very soon changed to Bridgeport. It continued in operation until January 13, 1874.
BRIEDWELL, Yamhill County. Briedwell was a station on the Oregonian Railway narrow gage line, later the Southern Pacific, at a point about two miles west of Amity, in the south part of the county. It was
