Jamie Francis/The Oregonian

Old Chief Joseph's Gravesite is near Iwetemlaykin State Heritage Area, named in honor of the Nez Perce tribe.

When you visit all the state parks in Oregon, the memories you carry home are of the views, the beaches, the campgrounds, the trees. What’s easy to miss are the names of the parks themselves.

Dozens of our state parks are named for people, and while some of their names may sound familiar, most become abstracted within our experience. We talk about going to “Honeyman” or “Stub Stewart” but who are those people? And why do parks now bear their names?

Parks not named for people reflect our culture in more nuanced ways: a doll, a cook stove, a shipwrecked boiler. By diving into the history of these names, we can uncover small slices of Oregon history, deepening our understanding of how these lands became public in the first place.

Here are the stories behind 30 of those Oregon state park names, taken from the Oregon Parks and Recreation Department and reference book “Oregon Geographic Names.” They range from the coast to the other side of the Cascades, and across the history of our state.

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Jamie Hale/The Oregonian

BEVERLY BEACH STATE PARK

Beverly Beach was originally the name of a small community adjacent to where the state park is now. Florence and Curtis Christy were the first to settle there, and it was their young daughter, Florence, who named the beach "Beverly" after her favorite doll.

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Courtesy of Oregon State Parks

BOB STRAUB STATE PARK

Originally called Nestucca Spit State Park, the coastal park on Nestucca Bay was renamed in 1987 for former Oregon Gov. Robert Straub, who supported the Oregon Beach Bill and opposed a plan that would build a highway at the spit.

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Jamie Hale/The Oregonian

BOILER BAY STATE SCENIC VIEWPOINT

Boiler Bay isn't named for the tumultuous ocean on the central Oregon coast, but for an actual ship's boiler that is still there today. The boiler is from the J. Marhoffer schooner, which in 1910 caught fire, lost control, ran into the cliffs and exploded. You can venture out to see the boiler at extremely low tides.

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BULLARDS BEACH STATE PARK

Bullards Beach State Park is named for Robert W. Bullard, who in 1882 established a general store and post office at the mouth of the Coquille River. He also operated ferry across the river, from what today is the state park over to Bandon.

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Courtesy of Oregon State Parks

CARL G. WASHBURNE MEMORIAL STATE PARK

The state park north of Heceta Head is named for Carl G. Washburne, a Eugene businessman who was the Oregon highway commissioner from 1932 to 1935. Land for the park was gifted to the state in 1962 by his wife, Narcissa Washburne.

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Oregonian File Photo

CHAMPOEG STATE HERITAGE AREA

Champoeg State Heritage Area was the site of the first warehouse for the Hudson's Bay Company on the Willamette River, and has a lot of historical significance. The name is thought to be derived from the French word champ, meaning "field," and a tribal word, probably poich meaning "root." It also might be an entirely native word, possibly campuik, which could have been a name for the false caraway plant.

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Courtesy of Oregon State Parks

CLYDE HOLLIDAY STATE RECREATION AREA

The eastern Oregon recreation site was given to the state by local rancher Clyde Holliday and his family. He arrived in Grant County in the 1940s and set up a logging operation, but later got into cattle ranching.

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Courtesy of Oregon State Parks

COLLIER MEMORIAL STATE PARK

The land that today is Collier Memorial State Park belonged to Charles and Janet Collier, owners of the Swan Lake Moulding Company in Klamath Falls. In 1945, their sons donated the land to the state as a memorial to their parents, along with a museum containing the family's collection of logging equipment.

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Courtesy of Oregon State Parks

DABNEY STATE RECREATION AREA

Found near the Columbia River Gorge, Dabney State Recreation Area is on land originally owned by Richard and Martha Dabney. The couple came to Oregon in 1887, where they made lucrative investments in timber and real estate. They kept a summer house at the site until Richard's death in 1916.

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Jamie Hale/The Oregonian

DEVIL’S LAKE STATE RECREATION AREA

Now a public recreation area and campground, Devil's Lake was originally named after a local tribal legend that spoke of a giant fish or marine monster that lived in the lake. The apostrophe is often absent, but Oregon State Parks maintains it from historical documents.

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Courtesy of Oregon State Parks

DEXTER STATE RECREATION SITE

On a reservoir south of Eugene, the Dexter State Recreation Site gets its name from the local community that in 1875 changed from Butte Disappointment to Dexter. The name is thought to have come from a "Dexter" brand cook stove.

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Jamie Hale/The Oregonian

ECOLA STATE PARK

One of the most popular and prominent state parks on the Oregon coast, Ecola took its name from nearby Ecola Creek in Cannon Beach, which was first named by William Clark in 1806. The name came from the Chinook word ekoli which means "whale."

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GUY W. TALBOT STATE PARK

Guy Webster Talbot was president of the Pacific Power and Light Company, whose family made the land in the Columbia River Gorge into a summer estate. In 1929, he gave the land to the state of Oregon, which over the next five decades purchased adjoining tracts to create the state park.

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Jamie Hale/The Oregonian

HARRIS BEACH STATE PARK

Now a popular beach and campground on the southern stretch of the Oregon coast, Harris Beach was named for George Scott Harris, a Scottish man who obtained the property in 1871. Harris served in the British Army in India, Africa and New Zealand, before settling down with sheep and cattle on the plot of land.

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HUG POINT

Hug Point is a small coastal state park site, named because travelers needed to hug the rocks to get around the point without getting wet. Before U.S. 101 was built, a makeshift automobile road was carved into the rock.

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Courtesy of Oregon State Parks

HUMBUG MOUNTAIN

Humbug Mountain on the southern Oregon coast has been known by a lot of names. It was originally called Sugarloaf Mountain, but was changed to Tichenors Humbug after an exploring party sent out by Captain William Tichenor lost its way near the landmark. The name soon evolved into Humbug Mountain. It is also thought to have been called Mount Franklin at one time, and Metus by local tribes.

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IWETEMLAYKIN STATE HERITAGE AREA

A decade-old state park site near the southern shore of Wallowa Lake, Iwetemlaykin (ee-weh-TEMM-lye-kinn) is a Nez Perce name that translates to "at the edge of the lake." The park is adjacent to the Old Chief Joseph Gravesite and is part of the ancestral homeland of the Nez Perce tribe.

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JESSIE M. HONEYMAN MEMORIAL STATE PARK

Jessie M. Honeyman was a Portlander known for her advocacy in support of roadside beautification and scenic preservation. Originally called Camp Woahink, much of the park was built by the Civilian Conservation Corps and later named in honor of Honeyman.

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Courtesy of Oregon State Parks

JOSEPH H. STEWART STATE RECREATION AREA

The park site and campground on the shores of Lost Creek Lake were named for Joseph Stewart, who once led the pear industry in southern Oregon. Stewart moved to the Rogue Valley in 1885 to start an orchard, and within five years he was shipping pears and other fruit nationwide. He owned land that is now the state park, and some of his fruit and walnut trees are still there.

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Jamie Francis/The Oregonian

L.L. STUB STEWART STATE PARK

The popular Willamette Valley state park is named for Loran L. "Stub" Stewart, president of the Bohemia Lumber Company who also spent nearly 40 years on the State Parks and Recreation Advisory Committee and the Oregon Parks and Recreation Commission. Stewart died in 2005, two years before the park opened.

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MILO MCIVER STATE PARK

Found southwest of Portland, Milo McIver State Park is named for Milo K. McIver, who worked for the Oregon Highway Commission between 1950 and 1962, the longest anyone had served on the commission.

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NEPTUNE STATE SCENIC VIEWPOINT

The small viewpoint just south of Cape Perpetua on the central Oregon coast is named for Neptune, Roman god of the sea, because of the big winter waves that crash into the rocky shore.

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OSWALD WEST STATE PARK

Oswald West State Park is perhaps best known for the good surfing at Short Sand Beach, which was the original name of the park site until 1958 when officials renamed it in honor of former Oregon Gov. Oswald West. In 1913, West successfully pushed for all of Oregon's beaches to become public land, though the famed Oregon Beach Bill didn't cement the law until 1967, seven years after his death.

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PETER SKENE OGDEN STATE PARK

The small central Oregon park site offers great viewpoints of two historic bridges over the Crooked River. At the recommendation of former Oregon highway Commissioner Robert Sawyer, the park was named for Peter Skene Ogden, an explorer and fur trapper who later became a senior official with the Hudson's Bay Company in the Pacific Northwest.

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Courtesy of Oregon State Parks

ROOSTER ROCK STATE PARK

A state park site in the Columbia River Gorge known for its clothing-optional beach, Rooster Rock is named for the obelisk-shaped rock formation on the Columbia River. About its naming, "Oregon Geographic Names" says only that "the modern name is of phallic significance."

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SAMUEL H. BOARDMAN SCENIC CORRIDOR

The beautiful stretch of scenic viewpoints, beaches and trails on the southern Oregon coast is named for Samuel H. Boardman, a man known as "the father of Oregon state parks." Boardman was the first state parks superintendent, serving as a champion for scenic highways and public parks.

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SHORE ACRES STATE PARK

One of three neighboring state parks on a gorgeous stretch of the southern Oregon coast, Shore Acres was the original name of a palatial estate built there in 1910 by shipbuilder and lumberman Louis J. Simpson. The opulent three-story mansion burned to the ground in 1921 but was rebuilt even bigger than before. In 1942, the Simspons sold the land to Oregon, which eventually tore down the neglected home and established a state park.

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SMITH ROCK STATE PARK

A world-class rock climbing destination, central Oregon's Smith Rock's name is a subject of some debate. "Oregon Geographic Names" contends it was named for John Smith, sheriff of Linn County from 1855 to 1859. According to a popular story, however, the name came from U.S. Calvary soldier Volk Smith, who is said to have fallen to his death there during a battle with the Northern Paiute in 1863.

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STARVATION CREEK STATE PARK

Starvation Creek in the Columbia River Gorge got its name from an incident in December 1884, when two trains on the recently completed railroad became snowbound. As one story goes, men were paid to pack food on skis from Hood River to feed the starving passengers.

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WILLIAM M. TUGMAN STATE PARK

In the Oregon Dunes, William M. Tugman State Park is named for the prominent newspaperman from Eugene and Reedsport who in 1957 became the first chairman of the State Parks and Recreation Advisory Committee.

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--Jamie Hale | jhale@oregonian.com | @HaleJamesB