Oregon Geographic Names by Lewis A. McArthur, Lewis L. McArthur

Abstract

on current issues,yet Iwish thosedifferenceshad been handled more consistently throughout the narrative.A worthwhile theme running through much of thebook isPeterson delMar's obser vation ? and apparent regret ? that Oregon's often touted political reformswere just that: reforms that leftthe system intact rather than radical departures or overtures. The listof sources is impressiveand current, and itprovides a fine grounding for anyone studying the Pacific Northwest. Footnote cita tions are limited to actual quotations, which leaves broad and sometimes controversial gen eralizations with littlesupporting evidence. The publisher would have greatlyaided thiseffortto describe Oregon by including at leastone all-en compassing map; its omission is unfortunate. To write a complete single-volume history of a stateas diverse asOregon isdifficultatbest. David Peterson delMar's effort has itsshortcom ings,but he provides a good running history of the state thatwill be useful tomany readers. Oregon Geographie Names, seventh edition By Lewis A. McArthur and Lewis L.McArthur Oregon Historical Society Press, Portland, 2003. Photographs, maps, index. 1,088 pages. $75.00 cloth, $35.00 paper. Reviewed byAlexander B.Murphy University ofOregon, Eugene FOR MORE THAN SEVENTY-FIVE YEARS, Oregon Geographic Names has been a valued ref erencework for those interested in thehistory and geography ofOregon. The book offersbrief descriptions ofOregon's cities, towns, railroad stations, lakes, mountains, valleys, streams, islands, and more, together with whatever infor mation thecompilers could find about the most commonly used names ascribed to those places since the period of Euro-American settlement. (Some of these names are ofNative American origin,but thebook does not include thenames given by Native peoples tomany of Oregon's places and features.) Each edition has been more comprehensive and more detailed than itspredecessor, and the seventh edition is no exception.Weighing in atwell over a thousand pages, itoffersa remarkably wide-ranging survey of Oregon's nooks and crannies. For those familiarwith the prior edition, thereare no dramatic changes to thebook itself. The publishers have adopted a new typefaceand layout that are easy on the eyes, and the intro duction has been slightlyexpanded to allow for a brief discussion of how thematerial for this and prior editions of thebook was gathered.The seventh edition also contains amodest number of photographs (primarilyhistorical) that were not present in previous editions. These are welcome complements to the text.Finally, the eight-hundred-odd new entries inthebook's lat est edition make it an ever-more comprehensive resource forinformationon thecommonly used place-names of Oregon. There isonemajor innovation to theseventh edition ofOregon GeographicNames: the inclu sion of a remarkable CD with interactive maps, a search function thatallows users tofindplace names on the map of Oregon, and a compre hensive index of places and biographic names. Curiously, this featureof thebook could easily bemissed by a readernot paying close attention. The onlymention of itappears in a couple of sentences at the very end of the preface, and theCD itself is tucked away in a hard-to-open sleeve inside theback cover. Ifyou were tomiss this feature,however, you would be missing an invaluable complement to thewritten text. 150 OHQ vol. 106, no. 1 Building on electronic data files compiled for the second edition of theAtlas ofOregon (UniversityofOregon Press, 2001), theCD's de signer, Erik Steinerof the University ofOregon's InfoGraphics Lab, developed an interface that allows a user tofind places of intereston a por tion of an Oregon map covering some 10,000 square miles (i.e., ca. 100 miles on a side) and then zoom in forgreater detail as faras amap covering approximately 250 square miles (i.e., ca. 16miles on a side). Two basic maps can be manipulated inthis way: one ofplace-names and one of historic post offices. When a section of one of themaps is chosen, the same section of the other map appears on the screen once that map has been selected.Moreover, a user looking at a map section can drag it north, south, east, orwest to look atwhat liesnearby ? or jump to an entirelydifferentpart of the statebymov inga box on an inset map to thedesired area of interest. A clear legendhelps thereader interpret themeaning of symbols for settlements, trans portation arteries, and physical features. The search feature on theCD is also quite useful...