A five-foot-high "earthen protuberance" rises above a remote Wasco County bluff over the Columbia River. A raw, beautiful spot, it's said. Distinctly Oregon.

This is McArthur Mound, the name bestowed by the Oregon Geographic Names Board after its longtime leader, Lewis L. McArthur, retired from the board shortly before his 90th birthday.

The 2006 naming of the rise was a playful honor: "an in-joke," says McArthur's daughter, Mary McArthur. "We were joking that there was no geographic feature too small to name."

But it was also a heartfelt recognition. It only seemed right that Lew McArthur's name be added, even if unofficially and whimsically, to the catalog of the state's monikers.

McArthur, who died on August 29 at 101, spent much of his life researching Oregon places and their histories, becoming, in the words of retired journalist John Terry, the "dean of Oregon geographic names."

For decades McArthur compiled and edited editions of the Oregon Historical Society's "Oregon Geographic Names," an essential reference work for historians of the region. It's a family calling: His father, Lewis A. McArthur, launched the source book in 1928.

Lewis L. McArthur

The son, a Portland native, put his historical expertise to good use, serving on the state's historic-preservation committee and the Historic Columbia River Highway State Advisory Committee. But this wasn't how he made his living. The University of California at Berkeley graduate spent some 40 years as an industrial designer for the Ray F. Becker Co.

Becker specialized in prefab service stations, but even 50 years ago McArthur foresaw the need to move beyond the internal-combustion engine. "[H]ere we are sitting on our hands when we should be exploring new modes, new fuels and perhaps smarter cars," he told The Oregonian in 1972. "But, of course, that affects the economy."

Professionally McArthur looked to the future. His heart, however, remained in the past. Throughout his life he felt a deep connection to the Pacific Northwest's history, and for good reason.

One great-grandfather, James W. Nesmith, was an Oregon pioneer and a U.S. senator in the 1860s. Another, William Pope McArthur, undertook the first U.S. government survey of "the Western Coast of the United States."

Even in an Oregon that had been settled and urbanized, Lew McArthur carried on the family's adventuring ways, becoming a dedicated mountaineer and finding his way to most of the highest peaks in North America.

McArthur loved to travel around Oregon, having first done so in his teens. Everywhere he went in the state he took note of the history, the tendrils from the past. "The whole idea of being connected to your history and the people," Mary McArthur says. "He just loved that."

Mary describes her father as a Renaissance man who embraced travel, technology and all variety of intellectual pursuit.

"He was a real role model," she says. "He instilled in us a sense of the importance of being a productive member of society, a love of the outdoors and of Oregon. He was a good, good man. An honorable man. He saw everybody for who they were."

He also saw every place for what it was as he relentlessly pursued his avocation.

McArthur discovered that the municipal name Delake, now part of Lincoln City, came about thanks to the way Finnish immigrants in the area pronounced nearby Devils Lake. And that the Harney County town of Drewsey was almost named Gouge Eye, a nod to a favored means of settling disputes during Wild West days. Locals soon settled on calling the town Drusy, the name of a prominent rancher's daughter. The stories could go on and on -- and they do in "Oregon Geographic Names."

Now McArthur's daughter has taken over the family's historical-name business. Mary McArthur is working on a new edition of "Geographic Names," though she insists there's no replacing her father.

"I'm not even close to the caliber he was," she says. "He was truly amazing."

Lewis L. McArthur is survived by his son Lewis, daughters Mary and Sarah, grandchildren Abby Larson and Doran McArthur Simpson, and companion Marie Hall. A memorial will be held in October at the Oregon Historical Society; plans for it have not yet been finalized.

-- Douglas Perry