What's In A Name?
There’s a story behind the name of every locale in the Umpqua Valley, and in each issue of UV we give you the scoop on one or more of them. In this issue, we present Part II of the meanings of local bodies of water.
Story by Jim Hays Photographs courtesy of Douglas County Museum
It was in the Winter 2019 issue of UV that we opined that it was nearly impossible to travel around Douglas County without getting your feet wet—figuratively speaking.
The county gets an average of 43.6 inches of rainfall annually. And with the Cascades on the east side and the Pacific Ocean as the westernmost boundary, the county’s many rivers, streams, lakes, creeks and ponds are seldom in any danger of running dry. Even in July, Douglas County’s driest month with an average of just 0.2 inches of rain.
We couldn’t get to all of them last time—and we won’t here, either, even though water covers less than 2 percent of the county’s 5,134 square miles.
But with the invaluable assistance of Oregon Geographic Names and back issues of the Oregon Historical Quarterly—plus other statistics and historical documents—and without claiming to be comprehensive or authoritative, here is what we learned about a few of the county’s bodies of water near the lower Umpqua River.
Siltcoos Lake
Straddling the line between Douglas and Lane counties, about 15 miles north of Reedsport, and comprising a surface area of 3,134 acres, Siltcoos is the largest lake on the Oregon coast.
The lake is a mere 13 feet above sea level and has an average depth of 11 feet. It’s a popular destination for fishing and camping. Its outflow is the modest Siltcoos River, a shallow, sluggish stream that flows generally west about three miles to the Pacific.
Depending on the source, Siltcoos is derived from a traditional Siuslaw place name. Other sources link it to the name of a tribal chief and still others say it comes from a native American family name. It has also been posited that the name is somehow linked to Coos Bay, more than 50 miles south, although the tribes of the two regions are apparently unrelated.
Tahkenitch Lake
Just south of Siltcoos Lake, the irregularly shaped Tahkenitch has a surface area of 2,118 acres and, like Siltcoos, an average depth of just 11 feet.
It lies about eight miles north of Reedsport in northwest Douglas County, just east of U.S. 101—which separates the lakes from the Oregon Dunes recreation area.
The name is said to be a Siuslaw word for “Many Arms,” which describes perfectly Tahkenitch Lake’s sprawling labyrinth of coves, inlets and islands, many of which are also named. The lake is 20 feet above sea level, and its northernmost shore is only a short distance from the southernmost backwater of Siltcoos, suggesting that the two lakes may have been connected at some point.
Tahkenitch Lake is fed by numerous creeks, principally Fivemile and Leitel, and its outflow is its namesake creek.
Both Tahkenitch and Siltcoos lakes were formed at the end of the Ice Age (about 12,000 years ago) when glacial melt caused sea levels to rise and drown the lower reaches of Oregon’s coastal rivers. Sediment left by the sluggish rivers formed dunes, which mostly blocked their natural outflow to the ocean. The rivers’ impounded water spread over a wide area and became the shallow lakes we know today.
Loon Lake
First, a factoid: According to the U.S. Bureau of Geographic Names, Douglas County’s Loon Lake is one of 17 bodies of water in the U.S. by that name. Five of them are in Minnesota. Go figure.
The local Loon Lake got its designation in 1852, according to Albert Walling’s 1884 History of Southern Oregon, cited in Oregon Geographic Names.
Loon Lake
Walling’s account says three men—L.L. Williams, Joseph Peters and Job Hatfield—set out from Scottsburg on the Umpqua River to explore the area of the Coast Range south of the river. They eventually came across this 294-acre lake, about 10 miles southwest of Scottsburg. The trio spotted loons in the water some distance away and a floating log that was home to a nest containing two eggs.
Unlike Tahkenitch and Siltcoos, Loon Lake is what is called a “landslide” lake. It was formed when a slide of sandstone blocks dammed Lake Creek—the lake’s principal inflow—an estimated 1,400 years ago. The resulting impound flooded the valley behind the slide. Loon Lake is 392 feet above sea level and has an average depth of 53 feet.
Today, the lake boasts a lodge and RV park, plus assorted recreation areas.
