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83 °F Forecast | Road Cams Saturday, May 1, 2004 Today's News | Classifieds | Autos | Homes | Jobs | Tempo | Health | Community | Home Delivery SECTIONS Home Page Local News Sports Business Obituaries Life Opinion - Politics AP News Weather Classified Archives Site Map EXTRA Newspaper in Education Personals Movie Times TV Times E The People CLASSIFIEDS Find a Car Find a Home Find a Job Find a Rental Place an ad eSouthernOregon Automotive Communities Entertainment Publications Recreation Calendar CUSTOMER SERVICE Frequent Questions Advertising Information Home Delivery Employment Contact Us Media Kit Network Affiliate Email Story to a Friend February 29, 2004 Sleuthing out the story of Selmac’s mystery ‘c’ As an unrepentant Oregonphile with a passion for onomastics, I was in hog heaven when the book recently landed with a whump in the Mail Tribune library. Not to worry: Onomastics is the study of the origin, meaning and use of names. We’re talking about the latest "Oregon Geographic Names" book, a whopping five-pounder published late last year. For those of us who love all things Oregon, the book is the Holy Bible of webfoot place names, the King James version of our state’s geographic monikers. The seventh edition is filled with the genesis of nearly 9,000 Oregon names in its 1,073 pages. The big book begins with AB Crossing in Coos County, a site named after Aasen Brothers logging railroad, and concludes on Zwagg Island in Curry County. The latter, with a slight spelling change, was named after Folker Von Der Zwaag who lived on the island with his dog Sniff in the late 1800s. Advertisement Hey, you gotta love the dog’s name. Lewis A. McArthur, the Lewis — or Clark — of Oregon onomastics, began gathering state names and their roots in the 1920s, publishing the first edition in 1928. His son, Lewis L. McArthur, now 86, continued the legacy. Mary McArthur, the founder’s granddaughter, is charged with future updates of the treasure trove of Oregon names. As one who drops Oregon place names at the drop of a hat — Hat Point is in Wallowa County — I’m glad to see the McArthurs soldiering on. Not that their sixth edition published in 1992 didn’t fill its 957 pages with historic revelations. But there is new stuff to peruse in the latest edition. One of the new entries is Lake Selmac near Selma in Josephine County. The community was named in 1897 after a hamlet in Van Buren County, Iowa, by pioneers hailing from the Hawkeye state. Completed in 1961 by Josephine County as a recreation site, Lake Selmac is a hangout for lunker largemouth bass. I haven’t caught any big bass at the lake, although I’ve been snagged by a couple of their more common cousins, the largemouth angler. But when I plunged into the lake entry, I came up gasping. The name is a combination of Selma and the project’s principal boosters, Bill McLean and Don McGregor, according to the book. That doesn’t square with my memory. Admittedly, the thing is sometimes on the blink. I was a youngster living in Kerby when it was announced that McMullin Creek was being dammed a few miles east of Selma in the fall of 1960. Some thought it was being damned. Founded in the 1850s, Kerby, once called Napoleon, was named after a pioneer, incidentally. As a 9-year-old, I was looking forward to fishing and swimming in the nearby lake. But I was more excited about the name-that-lake contest announced in the Grants Pass Daily Courier newspaper. The prize money was an eye-popping $50. That was a herd of bucks back then. But I couldn’t come up with what I thought was a decent shot at winning the contest. Meanwhile, a neighbor named Art Cribb, an old friend of my dad’s who had worked with him in the Civilian Conservation Corps in the 1930s, combined Selma and McMullin Creek to coin Lake Selmac. He won the big bucks. Obviously, my memory didn’t jive with the written word. Out of curiosity, I checked the entry for McMullin Creek, a tributary to Deer Creek. The former was named after settler William McMullin who had a donation land claim along the stream, the book explained. "The name of the impoundment, Lake Selmac, was coined by combining parts of Selma and McMullin," it added. Hmmmm. Which is the gospel? Given my memory of events, I side with the latter. But it will take a bit more sleuthing to sort fact from fiction. Yet my faith in Oregon’s Good Book remains unshaken. I’ll still be citing it, chapter and verse. After all, any journalist who made only one error in 9,000 stories would be a god among us daily scribblers. Reach reporter Paul Fattig at 776-4496 or e-mail him at [email protected] Mail Tribune Home Local News | Sports | Business | Obituaries | Life Opinion - Politics | AP News | Archives | Site Map E Southern Oregon | Classified Copyright © 1997-2004 Mail Tribune. All rights reserved. Privacy Policy | Terms & Conditions Website Feedback 3 WEEKS FREE! ADVERTISERS A D V E R T I S E R S RESOURCES Oregon Road Conditions & Cams SPECIAL SECTIONS Auto Finder Job Finder Home Finder Joy Magazine Homelife Magazine Tempo Readers' Choice Real Estate Showcase Since We Asked Food for Thought Wellness Connection Outdoor Journal Moving to Southern Oregon? Volunteer Opportunities Prime Times