[pct-l] Oregon PCT Names

[Wayne Kraft]

I'm betting that when you passed by Diamond Lake you thought it was named 
that way because of its vaguely diamond shape.  You probably thought Diamond 
Peak was named for its glistening jewel-like qualities.  And you were wrong 
both times.  Both are named for an Irishman named John Diamond who was out 
there looking for routes to build roads. He climbed the peak in 1852 and 
spied the lake from the peak.  A pair of Diamonds.  And that's not all. 
People down in the foothills near Coburg where Johnnie D lived liked him so 
much they named a local prominence Diamond Hill in his honor.

In 1867 a surveyor named William Holden Odell and a road builder named P.J. 
Pengra climbed to the top of a butte to scope out the surrounding terrain 
and, from the top of that butte, old Peej saw a magnificent lake which he 
named for his climbing companion, Odell.  Soon followed Odell Creek, the 
lake's outlet, and Odell Butte from which the lake was discovered to begin 
with.  (Note: you can see Odell Lake from the top of Diamond Peak, too, so I 
don't know why John Diamond neglected to name it, say, Lake John or 
something.)

This, of course, left the modest P.J. Pengra himself without a PCT 
geographic namesake.  Tam McArthur, the compiler of Oregon Geographic Names 
remedied this oversight in 1927 when he convinced the US Bureau of 
Geographical Names to name a saddle over which the PCT traverses Pengra 
Pass.  Much later apparently, Tam McArthur learned the P.J. Pengra actually 
discovered Pengra Pass. A train station in the valley and a post office near 
Lava Butte south of Bend, Oregon were also named for P.J. Pengra.  Both P.J. 
Pengra and John Diamond lived in the small town of Coburg at the same time 
and must have known each other.  Not to far east of Odell Lake is a 
dramatically different mountain lake the Indians called Simax.  For whatever 
reason, Odell and Pengra renamed it Crescent Lake.  If you ever explore the 
area, you'll find Crescent and Odell Lakes a study in contrasts.  Odell is 
very much a western Oregon Lake:  cold, deep and green with rocky shores and 
banks densely forested with Douglas Fir.  Crescent is and eastern lake: 
shallow, warm (in summer) and blue with sandy beaches and shores forested 
with Ponderosa Pine.  The Cascade rain shadow effect is dramatic.