Oregon Historical Quarterly/Volume 11/The Peter Skene Ogden Journals part II, editorial introduction
THE PETER SKENE OGDEN JOURNALS
Editorial Notes by T. C. Elliott
Readers of the Oregon Historical Quarterly for December, 1909, in which the first of this series of Journals was published, will recall that Mr. Ogden reached Ft. Vancouver from his second expedition to the Snake Country on the 17th of July, 1826; that he had returned by way of the Willamette, having crossed Central Oregon from East to West and the Cascade Range of mountains by one of the middle passes, probably that at the head of the Santiam river. Having had but twelve days' vacation at Ft. Nez Ferces the previous year Mr. Ogden had earned his two months of rest during this summer of 1826; and also probably enjoyed this his first visit to the new (and original) Ft. Vancouver which Dr. McLoughlin had built since the winter of 1824-5, the location of which was upon the high ground back of and about one-fourth mile East of the second stockade and buildings which were begun in 1828. His personal acquaintance with Dr. McLoughlin, who was eleven years his senior in years and with whom he was intimately associated all the remainder of his life, up to this time had been very slight.
We now find Mr. Ogden at The Dalles on September 19th, 1826, ready to start upon his third expedition of trapping and exploration, the indomitable Thos. McKay with him of course, and a party of thirty-five men which was a little later increased to forty-three, and the necessary horses over one hundred in number. The native families of these men and probably some native trappers also seem not to have been included in this enumeration.
Mr. Finan (also and more properly spelled Finnan) McDonald of the previous year's party has meantime departed with his family for the Red River country, as we learn from a letter in the John McLeod Journal, and is not again heard of West of the Rocky Mts. To this Mr. McDonald, who was one of the very first engaged in fur trading on the waters of the Columbia, as early as 1807, evidently belongs the credit of having first reached the Klamath country in Oregon (See entry Dec. 6th, infra.) From him then must have come the first report of a name for the Indians of that quarter, either a French-Canadian rendition of the native name or a French name assigned by the trappers because of local conditions, French then being the common language of these trapping parties.
A suggestion, not yet a conclusion, as to this name Klamath may be made here. It is well established that many of the geographical and tribal names of the Oregon Country come from the trappers and traders of the various Fur Companies: some incident or some local condition would suggest the name, as "Nez Perces" or "Malheur." The conditions in the Klamath region suggest the name given in this journal, Clammitte, from the French CLAIR-METIS meaning a light mist or cloud. And it is quite as easy to suppose that the Indians in later years attempted to copy this name from the trappers as the reverse. Fremont adopted TLAMATH as the more correct rendition of the Indian pronunciation.
In February of the previous year a trapper named Antoine Sylvaille with others had been sent by Mr. Ogden to the sources of the Owyhee and Malheur rivers with instructions to rejoin the main party upon its return. Sylvaille however returned to Ft. Vancouver independently and reported finding a stream in that quarter very rich with beaver, to which the name Sylvaille River was at once given. This region and that of the Klamath Mr. Ogden was instructed to explore upon this third expedition. According to the series of maps published in London between 1830 to 1850 of "British North America, by permission dedicated to the Honourable Hudson's Bay Company, containing the latest information which their documents furnish, by their obedient servant, J. ArrowArrowsmith", Sylvaille's river is identical with the present Silver's or Silvie's river of the Malheur Lake region of Oregon.
That this original name still remains in abbreviated form is evidenced by a letter dated May 7th, 1910, from an early settler (1873) of Harney County, Mr. M. Fitzgerald, who says: "The river which flows through the' valley from the North and empties into Malheur Lake was then called Sylvies River. The spelling has since been changed. It was said to have derived its name from a trapper who followed his calling there many years before; just when no one seemed to know."
The journal of this expedition does not cover the movements as closely as could be desired, and it is difficult to follow the party accurately at times. But speaking generally the course deviated from that of the previous year by crossing the Des Chutes at what is now Sherar's Bridge; thence following, probably, the trail which afterward became the Willamette Valley & Cascade Mt. Military Road toward the Malheur Lake country; thence in November returning northwestward across the dry country of Central Oregon to the head waters of the Des Chutes; thence crossing south to the waters of the Klamath and spending the entire winter months on the streams to the East and North of Mt. Shasta, which he named; and probably reaching the Rogue River valley also; thence in the Spring crossing Northeast to the Malheur country again and descending that stream to Snake river, and from there in July returning to Ft. Walla Walla by the usual route.
Although not traveling through much of what we know as the Snake River country, the expedition was designated by the Hudson's Bay Company as the Snake Expedition.
From this journal we learn many interesting things about conditions in Central and Southern Oregon before the coming of the white men; for instance the unusual number and extreme poverty of the Snake Indians near Harney Lake and the evidence that buffalo once ranged there; the dwellings of the Klamaths; the first mention of the Shastas and the giving of that name to the mountain; and negatively the complete silence as to any Indians living in pits.We also are becoming more intimately acquaintely with Mr. Ogden himself and his views of life; and with the vicissitudes of a fur trader's career.
The reader is referred to the Oregon Historical Quarterly for December, 1909 (Vol. 10, No. 4) for previous notes about Mr. Ogden and these journals.