Factoria ~ Fucas Pillar Origin Washington Geographic Names

Factoria, a town on the shore of Lake Washington ten miles north of Renton, King County. The name came from the expectation that it would become a manufacturing center. (Postmaster, Factoria, in Names MSS., Letter 521.)

Fairfield, a town in the southeastern part of Spokane County. It was named in 1888 by E. H. Morrison on account of the extensive grain fields surrounding the town and also to please Mrs. Morrison, who once lived in a town of that name in the East. (George W. Darknell, in Names MSS., Letter 348.)

Fairhaven, see Bellingham.

Fairholm, a town on Lake Crescent in Clallam County, which had that name for about ten years. It was suggested by Mrs. George E. Machelle when the post office was established in 1893. She requested in 1913 that the name of the town and post office be changed to Lake Crescent, which was done. (D. A. Christopher, Piedmont, in Names MSS., Letter 252.)

Fallbridge, a railroad junction in the south central part of Klickitat County. The name was suggested because Celilo Falls and a bridge across the Columbia River are there. (L. C. Gilman, in Names MSS., Letter 590.)

Fall City, a town in the central part of King County. In the early days the place was called "The Landing" or "The Falls." The Bohen brothers had an Indian trading post there. About 1870 James Taylor and the Bohen brothers circulated a petition for a post office, which was granted, and Fall City became a fixture. The lewd where the town was established was owned by Jeremiah W. Borst, the pioneer who settled there in 1858, and became a farmer and hop grower on an extensive scale. (C. W. Bonell, in Names MSS., Letter 178, and History of the Pacific Northwest: Oregon and Washington, Volume II., page 219.)

False Bay, on the southwest shore of San Juan Island, San Juan County. The name first appears on the British Admiralty Chart 2689, Richards, 1858-1859. It is also found on recent American charts.

False Dungeness, see Ediz Hook and Port Angeles.

Farmdale Homestead, see Ballard.

Farmington, a town in the northeastern part of Whitman County. It was founded and named in July, 1878, by G. W. Truax, who had previously resided at Hastings, Minnesota. Eighteen miles west there is a town named Farmington, and it was after that town that the new one in Washington was named. (The Independent, in Names MSS., Letter 343.)

Farrington, a town in Franklin County, originally known as Windust after the name of a ferry and its owner at that place. The name was changed to its present form in honor of R. I. Farrington, comptroller of the Great Northern Railway Company. (L. C. Gilman, in Names MSS., Letter 590.)

Farris, a town shown on old maps as on Entiat River, Chelan County. The post office has been discontinued. (C. C. King, Entiat, in Names MSS., Letter 310.)

Fauntleroy Cove, now the location of one of the westernmost suburbs of the City of Seattle, so named by George Davidson of the United States Coast Survey in 1857, in honor of the surveying brig R. H. Fauntleroy. He had named the brig in honor of Lieutenant Robert Henry Fauntleroy, whose daughter Ellinor became Mrs. Davidson in 1858. In the same year that the young surveyor named the cove he also named the Olympic peaks, one for his sweetheart, one for her two brothers, and one for her sister. Thus originated the names of Mount Ellinor, Mount Constance and The Brothers in plain view from Fauntleroy Cove, Seattle and other parts of Puget Sound. (Edmond S. Meany, in Washington Historical Quarterly, Volume IV., Number 3, July, 1913, pages 182-186.)

Favorsburg, see Pataha City, Garfield County.

Fawn Island, a small island in Deer Harbor, on the southwestern shore of Orcas Island in San Juan County. The name first appears on the British Admiralty Chart 2840, Richards, 1858-1860.

Felida, a town north of Vancouver in Clarke County. The naming of the original post office passed through a curious evolution. Mr. McIrvin, the first postmaster, wished to call it Lake View, but there was already a post office with that name in the state. John D. Geoghegan suggested the name of Powley in honor of an old settler. When the papers came from the Post office Department the name was spelled "Polly." There was already a post office named Sara in the same region, and the postmaster objected to "Polly." C. C. Lewis, who worked in the store and served as assistant postmaster, had a valuable cat, and at his suggestion the new office was to be called "Thomas." The settlers were ambitious and rebelled against such a name for their growing town. Lewis was persistent, but approached the problem from another angle. He suggested that they look up the Latin name for the cat's family. This was found to be Felidae, and the name shortened to Felida was accepted. (Clipping from the Vancouver Columbian, November 20, 1915, in Names MSS., Letter 160.)

Fellows, see Telford in Lincoln County.
Ferguson County, created and named by the Territorial Legislature but afterward abandoned.

Ferguson Lake, south of Olympia in Thurston County, named in honor of Jesse Ferguson, an old settler on Bush Prairie. (H. B. McElroy, in Names MSS., Letter 46.)

Fern Cove, on Vashon Island, opening on Colvos Passage, in King County. It was named by the United States Coast Survey in 1857.

Ferndale, a town on the Nooksack River in Whatcom County. In 1872, about fifteen families had settled in the locality and begun a school. Miss Eldridge from Bellingham Bay was the first teacher. She and a Mrs. Tawes went over to sec the little log schoolhouse in a fern patch. They decided to call it Ferndale. (Fred L. Whiting, in Names MSS., Letter 156.)

Ferry County, created by the State Legislature on February 21, 1899. On the motion of Representative C. S. Gleason of King County, the name of the proposed county was changed from "Eureka" to Ferry in honor of Elisha P. Ferry, first governor of the state. (Edmond S. Meany, History of the State of Washington, page 360.)

Fidalgo. Two attempts have been made to use this name for towns. One near Deception Pass has been merged into Dewey. The other was on Fidalgo Bay at Munks Landing, where William Munks began a trading post in the sixties. A post office was established there in 1890, but, though it is carried on charts, the United States Postal Guide no longer carries the name.

Fidalgo Bay, off the northeast shore of Fidalgo Island, from which it obtained the name.

Fidalgo Island, on the western shore of Skagit County. In 1791 the Spaniard Elisa charted what we now know as Rosaria Strait as "Canal de Fidalgo." Vancouver in 1792 discovered and named Deception Pass but did not learn that the northern shore was part of a large island. That discovery was made by the Wilkes Expedition, 1841, on whose chart it is shown as Perrys Island in honor of Oliver Hazard Perry of the United States Navy. To intensify the name, the highest land on the island was called Mount Erie after Perry's famous victory in the Battle of Erie, in the War of 1812. The name of the island was later changed, but that of the mountain remains. On the British Admiralty Chart, Kellett, 1847, the name of Fidalgo Island appears first and permanently. It was a part of Captain Kellett's plan to restore Spanish names as far as he could. In this case he changed the name of a channel to that for an island.

Fidalgo's Cove, see Neah Bay.

Filuce Bay, across Pitt Passage, opposite the southwestern point of McNeil Island, in Pierce County. The name first appears on the charts of the Wilkes Expedition, 1841, as Titusi, but in that Expedition's volume, Hydrography, it is spelled, page 474, Tetusi. No clue has yet been found leading to a meaning of the original name or to the transformation of the name to its present form. The British Admiralty Chart 1947, Inskip, 1846, shows the name "Turnours Bay."

Fin Creek, a branch of the Nemah River in Pacific County. It was named about 1890 because some Finns settled there. (George W. Prior, Nemah, in Names MSS., Letter 184.)

Finley, a town in Benton County, named in honor of George E. Finley, one of the first settlers under the Northern Pacific Irrigation Canal. His place adjoins the townsite of Finley. (E. M. Angell, in Names MSS., Letter 512.)

Fir, a town in Skagit County. The place was first known as Mann's Landing, as C. H. Mann had settled there in 1876 to take advantage of logging trade. Old settlers say it was the site of an old Indian burial ground. (History of Skagit and Snohomish Counties, page 110.)

Fisgard Island, see Anderson Island.

Fish River, a stream flowing into the Strait of Juan de Fuca, in the northern part of Clallam County. The early Spanish maps show it as "Rio Canel." J. G. Kohl in the Pacific Railroad Reports says the Spanish name was "Rio Canil," meaning "River of Coarse Bread." George Davidson in the Report of the United States Coast Survey for 1858 says, page 418, that the Indian name for the stream was "Pish-st," and on most of the official charts the name is given as Pysht River. In the Chinook Jargon pish or pysht means fish. Secretary of the Interior Richard H. Ballinger issued an order changing the name to Fish River, which name appears on most of the recent maps. The United States Postal Guide shows the post office near the mouth of the river still wearing the name Pysht.

Fisher Island, in the Columbia River, in the southwestern portion of Cowlitz County. The Wilkes Expedition, 1841, charted it as "Plomondon Island," but that honor for the old retired Hudson's Bay Company man has been replaced.

Fishermans Bay, on the west shore of Lopez Island in San Juan County. The British Admiralty Chart 2689, Richards, 1858-1859, shows the bay simply as Lagoon. There are many "Fishermans Bays" and "Coves" on the Pacific Coast. This one appears, so named, on the United States Coast and Geodetic Survey Chart 6380, dated January, 1912.

Fishermans Harbor, see Coyle, Jefferson County.

Fishing Bay, at the head of East Sound, Orcas Island, in San Juan County. The name first appears on the British Admiralty Chart 2689, Richards, 1858-1859, and later on United States Government charts.

Fishtrap, a town in Lincoln County, the station being formerly known as Vista. A small lake nearby was called Fishtrap because the Indians had natural traps there for taking fish, which are still plentiful. The post office was located on the land of John W. Lawton, who suggested the name of Fishtrap in June, 1906. (Irene Lawton, in Names MSS., Letter 238.)

Fishtrap Creek, a tributary of the Nooksack River in Whatcom County. It was named by the surveyor John Cornelius because he found the Indians had fish traps there and large buildings on shore for their primitive salmon industry. (Mrs. Phoebe N. Judson, Lynden, in Names MSS., Letter 187.)

Flag River, see Palouse River.

Flat Creek, a tributary of the Columbia River, flowing in at Ryan in Stevens County. The land through which the creek flows is flat, which probably accounts for the name. (Joseph T. Reed, Marble, in Names MSS., Letter 125.)

Flathead River, one of the names used for Clark Fork River. Flat Point, a northwestern cape of Lopez Island, in San Juan County. The name first appeared on the British Admiralty Chart 2689, Richards, 1858-1859.

Flattery Rocks, on the western coast of Clallam County south of Cape Flattery. The name arose through efforts of explorers to locate the place which Captain James Cook had named Cape Flattery. Vancouver in 1792 definitely located the name where it is now used and also recorded his effort at accuracy by charting the name Flattery Rocks where he thought it possible that Cook had intended to fix the name of Cape Flattery. Both names have remained where Vancouver placed them. See also Cape Alava and Cape Flattery.

Flattop Island, between Speiden and Orcas Islands in San Juan County. The name is descriptive and was given by the Wilkes Expedition, 1841, and was retained on the charts of the United States Coast Survey and the British Admiralty.

Fletcher, a town in Whitman County. It was named in 1889 in honor of Joseph Fletcher, on whose land a station was built, still used by the Oregon-Washington Railway & Navigation Company. (E. J. Tramill, in Names MSS., Letter 179.)

Fletcher Bay, on the western shore of Bainbridge Island, Kitsap County. The name does not appear in early charts and is probably of local origin.

Florence, a town in Snohomish County. The site was first settled in 1864 by Harry Marshall, Twenty years later F. E. Norton became postmaster of the first post office there, 1884. The latter named the office, it is said, after his old sweetheart. (History of Skagit and Snohomish Counties, pages 368-369.)

Flounder Bay, on the northwest extremity of Fidalgo Island in Skagit County. See Boxer Cove for a discussion of its original name. Fonte Bank, see Hein Bank.

Foran, a town shown on Kroll's map of Lewis County, north of Centralia. It does not appear in recent issues of the United States Postal Guide.

Forbes Point, west of Crescent Harbor, Whidbey Island in Island County. The name was written on Vancouver's Chart, 1792, but he failed to mention any reason for the name in his journal. Ford's Creek. The Wilkes Expedition, 1841, gave this name to a small stream flowing into Grays Harbor near the present city of Westport. The honor was probably intended for Thomas Ford, a member of the crew.

Ford's Point, see Blowers Bluff.

Ford's Prairie, a well-known pioneer name in the vicinity of the present Centralia, Lewis County. James G. Swan in his Northwest Coast, pages 355-356, says: "Judge Sidney Ford lived on the Chehalis River, near the Skookum Chuck Creek. The judge, or, as he was more familiarly called, Uncle Sid, kept a public house on the Cowlitz road, which was the regular mail-route from Olympia to the Columbia River."

Forest, a post office in Lewis County, was established and named by W. R. Monroe in March, 1897, On October 1, 1897, it was moved a mile and a half southeast to its present location by the postmaster, Joseph Grenner. The place is usually called Newaukum Prairie. (Joseph Grenner, postmaster, in Names MSS., Letter 18.) Forks Lake, see Osoyoos Lake.

Foron, a new town on the Willapa Harbor branch of the Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul Railroad. It was named in honor of the Foron brothers, who have a coal mine and sawmill near the place. (Henry A. Dunckley, in Names MSS., Letter 54.)

Fort Bellingham, on Bellingham Bay, near the City of Bellingham, Whatcom County. It was established in 1856 with Captain George E. Pickett of the Ninth Infantry, United States Army, in command. He was later transferred to San Juan Island, and still later, during the Civil War, gained fame as a Confederate leader, notably during "Pickett's Charge" at Gettysburg. As the Indian troubles subsided Fort Bellingham was abandoned.

Fort Borst, at the junction of the Skookumchuck and Chehalis Rivers near Centralia, Lewis County. The blockhouse fort was built during the Indian war in 1856 on the claim of Joseph Borst. His widow presented the old fort to Centralia and that city proposed to create for it Fort Borst Park.

Fort Canby, at the mouth of the Columbia River, in the southwestern part of Pacific County. It was completed and garrisoned in 1865 at Cape Disappointment, then officially known as "Cape Hancock." In 1874, by order of the War Department, at the suggestion of Assistant Adjutant-General H. Clay Wood, the present name was adopted in honor of Brevet Major-General Edward Richard Sprigg Canby, United States Army. General Canby had been treacherously attacked and slain near Van Bremmer's Ranch, California, April 11, 1873, during the Modoc Indian War. He had served with marked distinction in the Mexican and Civil Wars. (Hubert Howe Bancroft, Works, Volume XXX., page 511, and Commandant, Fort Canby, in Names MSS., Letter 88.)

Fort Casey, opposite Port Townsend, on Whidbey Island, in Island County. Brigadier-General Silas Case}' was a distinguished officer in the United States Army. In 1856-1857 he was in command on Puget Sound. His son, by the same name, was also distinguished in the United States Navy. The fort was named in honor of one of these.

Fort Columbia, on the Columbia River, at Chinook Point, Pacific County. It was named on July 13, 1899, by direction of the President and under the provisions of paragraph 198, Army Regulations, by the War Department, by command of Major-General Miles, H. C. Corbin, adjutant-general. (Colonel H. W. Ludlow, Coast Artillery Corps, Fort Stevens, Oregon, in Names MSS., Letter 124.)

Fort Colville, an old Hudson's Bay Company trading post on Marcus Flats above Kettle Falls of the Columbia River, in Stevens County. It was established by John Work of the Hudson's Bay Company in 1826 and named in honor of Andrew Colville, who succeeded Sir Henry Pelly as governor in London of the Hudson's Bay Company. See also Colville. It is claimed by some that the correct spelling of the name is Colvile. (Hubert Howe Bancroft, Works, Volume XXVIII, page 469, and T. C. Elliott, Journal of John Work in the Washington Historical Quarterly, October, 1914, page 258.)

Fort Flagler, near Port Townsend in Jefferson County. It was named in honor of Brigadier-General Daniel Webster Flagler, chief of ordnance, United States Army, who died on March 29, 1899. He had served with distinction during the Civil War. (Major H. E. Clarke, Coast Artillery Corps, Fort Flagler, in Names MSS., Letter 200.)

Fort Lawton, on a promontory known as Magnolia Bluff, a part of Seattle, King County. It was named in honor of Henry Ware Lawton, major-general of United States Army, who was killed at San Mateo, Luzon, Philippine Islands, on December 19, 1899. Fort Nez Perce, see Fort Walla Walla.

Fort Nisqually, see Dupont and items under Nisqually.

Fort Okanogan, near the mouth of the Okanogan River, where it flows into the Columbia River, Okanogan County. It was established as an interior trading post by Astor's Pacific Fur Company in 1811, but was abandoned soon after the North-West Company of Montreal got control of the Astor properties during the War of 1812. The name has been charted as "Okinakane" and with other spellings. Fort Ragland. At Nisqually Ferry during the Indian wars such a fort was maintained on the claim of Joel Myers. The place later became the property of Dan Mounts. (H. K. Hines, An Illustrated History of the State of Washington, page 640.)

Fort Simcoe, headquarters of the Yakima Indian Reservation in Yakima County. After the defeat of troops under Major G. O. Haller by the Yakima Indians in Simcoe Valley, in 1855, the Government established Fort Simcoe, transporting the materials for buildings at great expense. When the Indian treaties were ratified in March, 1859, the fort was abandoned and the buildings were turned over to the Indian agency. It is still called Fort Simcoe.

Fort Steilacoom, near Tacoma in Pierce County. Patkanim, chief of the Snoqualmie tribe, had made an attack on Fort Nisqually early in 1849. In July of that year a small garrison of troops were sent to Puget Sound for protection and were established at Fort Steilacoom, the name being taken from an Indian chief of that locality. When the fort was abandoned the buildings were bought by the Territory of Washington on December 2, 1869, to be used as a hospital for the insane. That institution still has Fort Steilacoom as the name of its post office as distinguished from the nearby town known as Steilacoom. Fort Taylor. Captain E. D. Keyes, in charge of the first detachment of Colonel George Wright's column in its advance against the Indians in August, 1858, chose the site for a fort at the crossing of the Snake River at the mouth of the Tucannon River, Columbia County. The fort was named in honor of Captain Oliver H. P. Taylor, a graduate of West Point, who was killed in Steptoe's battle with the Indians at Rosalia on May 17, 1858.

Fort Townsend. In the fall of 1856, Brevet Major G. O. Haller was ordered to proceed from The Dalles and to establish a fort near Port Townsend. This he did, and he was the first commander of Fort Townsend, giving protection from assaults by the troublesome northern Indians. The old buildings are still there but no longer used as a fort. (Theodore N. Haller, in The Washington Historian, April, 1900, pages 104-105.) James G. Swan, in his North-west Coast, page 425, speaks of a letter from General George Gibbs, dated at Fort Vose, on Port Townsend, W. T., January 7, 1857. That may have been one of the blockhouses of the Indian war days or it may have been another name for Fort Townsend.

Fort Vancouver, on the Columbia River, in Clarke County. It is the oldest continuous home of white man in the State of Washington. After the North-West Company of Montreal and the Hudson's Bay Company were merged in 1821, Dr. John McLoughlin was sent out as chief factor. In the spring of 1825 he moved headquarters from Fort George (Astoria) farther up the river to a place which he erroneously thought was the highest point reached by the Vancouver expedition in 1792. With that in mind he called the new headquarters Fort Vancouver.

Fort Walla Walla. Two forts by that name have been historically important. On July 11, 1818, a party of Hudson's Bay Company men encamped on the east bank of the Columbia River, about half a mile above the mouth of the Walla Walla River and there began the construction of a strong fort of heavy timbers. Though the surrounding Indians were of the Walla Walla and neighboring tribes, this fort was often called "Fort Nez Perces." In 1842 the fort was destroyed by fire and was rebuilt of adobe. In 1855 the fort was abandoned to prevent the goods and ammunition from falling into the hands of hostile Indians. The town that has grown up at that place is called Wallula. The other Fort Walla Walla was established by Colonel George Wright in 1857 as a protection against the Indians. White men had been forbidden to settle in that region. The Indians were conquered, the prohibition of settlement was removed and the City of Walla Walla grew near the fort.

Fort Ward, near the entrance to Port Orchard, in Kitsap County. The War Department, in General Order No. 84, June 12, 1903, gave the name to the fort in honor of Colonel George H. Ward, brevet brigadier-general, United States Volunteers, who was wounded at the Battle of Gettysburg, July 2, 1863, and died of his wounds on the following day. (Captain Clifford Jones, Coast Artillery Corps, in Nantes MSS., Letter 534.)

Fort Whitman, on Goat Island, facing Deception Pass, in the southwestern part of Skagit County. The name was bestowed by the War Department in December, 1909, in honor of the famous missionary, Marcus Whitman, who was killed by the Walla Walla Indians on November 29, 1847. (Seattle Post-Intelligencer, January 1, 1910.) Fort Worden, at Point Wilson, near Port Townsend, Jefferson County. The War Department, in General Orders No. 43, April 4, 1900, bestowed the name in honor of the late Admiral John L. Worden, United States Navy, who was in command of the original Monitor in its engagement with the Confederate ram Merrimac at Hampton Roads, Virginia, March 8 and 9, 1862. (Colonel George T. Bartlett, Fort Worden, in Names MSS., Letter 147.) George Davidson, in the United States Coast Survey Report for 1858, page 453, says he found at Point Wilson in 1857 an unfinished log hut called Fort Mason, probably an honor in name for Secretary and Acting Governor Charles H. Mason.

Fort Wright, near Spokane in Spokane County. It was named in honor of Colonel George Wright of the Ninth Infantry, United States Army, who received command of the Columbia River district in January, 1856, at the time of Indian troubles. (L. C. Gilman, in Names MSS., Letter 590, and Hubert Howe Bancroft, Works, Volume XXXI., page 116.)

Foster, a town in King County, named in honor of Joseph Foster, who settled on his homestead there in 1852. He died there on January 16, 1911, at the age of 83. (Seattle Post-Intelligencer, January 17, 1911.) Charles Foster, a brother of Joseph Foster, had a homestead nearby, and when he died on March 5, 1915, the claim was made that the town of Foster was named in his honor. (Seattle Times, March 5, 1915.) ,

Foster Point, on the southern shore of Orcas Island west of the entrance to East Sound, San Juan County. The name appears first on the British Admiralty Chart 2689, Richards, 1858-1859.

Foulweather Bluff, in the northern part of Kitsap County, near the entrance to Hood Canal. The name was given by Vancouver, 1792, who says, in Voyage, second edition, page 82, "in consequence of the change we experienced in its neighborhood." George Davidson, in the Pacific Coast Pilot, page 595, says the Indian name for the place was "Pitch-pol." J. G. Kohl, in Hydrography, Volume XII., Part I., of Pacific Railroad Report, page 284, says the name "Suquamish Head," often used, may have been given by the Hudson's Bay Company men.

Four Lakes, a town north of Cheney, in Spokane County. The region was known as the "Four Lakes Country" because of the four lakes there. The name was given by W. F. Bassett, a pioneer who was in Spokane Falls, 1870-1871, and moved to a farm near Cheney. (H. S. Bassett, Harrington, in Names MSS., Letter 327.)

Fox Island, north of McNeil Island, in Pierce County. It was named by the Wilkes Expedition, 1841, in honor of J. L. Fox, an assistant surgeon of the expedition. The British Admiralty Chart 1947, Inskip, 1846, shows the island under the name "Rosario," but the older name has persisted.

Fragaria, a town on Colvos Passage, in Kitsap County. The name is Latin for the genus of plants to which the strawberry belongs and was given to the place by Ferdinand Schmitz on February 15, 1912, in honor of the early berries ripened there. (M. B. Fountain, in Names MSS., Letters 547 and 564.)

Francis, see Longview.

Frankfort, a town on the Columbia River, in Pacific County. It was named by the promoters in 1890 in honor of Frank Bourn and Frank Scott, who had the townsite laid out and platted. (Postmaster of Frankfort, in Names MSS., Letter 120.)

Franklin, name of a former post office at the site of Puyallup, Pierce County. See Puyallup.

Franklin, a town in King County, twelve miles south of Maple Valley.

Franklin County, authorized by the Legislature of Washington Territory on November 28, 1883, and named in honor of Benjamin Franklin.

Fravel, see Blanchard, Skagit County.

Freeland Colony, see Equality, Skagit County.

Freeport, a town on the Cowlitz River, in Cowlitz County. It was laid out by Nathaniel Stone and named in honor of a town in Indiana where his family lived before migrating to the Pacific Coast in 1848. (Mrs. Antoinette Baker Huntington, Castle Rock, manuscript in Pioneer Files, University of Washington.)

Freeman's Island, a small island on the west coast of Orcas Island, just south of Point Doughty, in San Juan County. John Doughty was a petty officer, captain of the top, and J. D. Freeman, sail maker on the Peacock of the squadron, was undoubtedly the one honored when the Wilkes Expedition, 1841, named Freeman's Island. French Creek, a small tributary of the Snohomish River, near Snohomish. William Whitfield, a pioneer of 1865, says that French Creek or French Slough got its name from the fact that three of the first settlers, John Richards, Peter Voisard and Peter Ladebush, were Canadian Frenchmen. (John W. Miller, in Names MSS., Fetter 197.)

Freshwater Bay, on the Strait of Juan de Fuca, at the mouth of the Elwha River, near Port Angeles, Clallam County. The Spaniards called it "Ensenada de Davila." The name appears first on the British Admiralty Chart, 1911, Kellett, 1847.

Friday Harbor, a town on San Juan Island, county seat of San Juan County. The Hudson's Bay Company had a station in that vicinity and employed as sheepherder an old Kanaka obtained by them from the Hawaiian Islands. An English boat came into the harbor and the captain sent some men to the old man's camp asking the name of the place. He did not know. They asked his own name and he said "Friday." The captain said: "We'll call this Friday Harbor," and subsequent efforts to change the name to "Bellevue" have failed. Charles McKay, an old pioneer, says the christening must have taken place seventy-five years ago. (Postmaster, in Names MSS., Fetter 495,) The name appears on the British Admiralty Chart 2689, Richards, 1858-1859.

Fritz Point, on the western shore of Orcas Island, north of Jones Island. It was named by the Willes Expedition 1841 in honor of James Fritz, a gunner, who joined the squadron at Rio and served the cruise.

Frolic Straits, see Upright Channel.
Frontier, see Velvet, Stevens County.

Frost Island, a small island between Blakely and Lopez Islands in San Juan County. It was named by the Wilkes Expedition, 1841, in honor of John Frost, boatswain of the Porpoise, in the Wilkes squadron.

Frosty Creek, a tributary of the Sanpoil River, near Aeneas, Okanogan County. The name is descriptive. (Charles Clark of Aeneas, in Names MSS., Letter 288.)

Fruitland, a town on the Columbia River, in Stevens County.
A. L. Washburn and Mr. Price took up preemption claims there in 1880. It was called at first "Price's Valley." J. N. Allison joined them and their orchards thrived. One day Mrs. Allison placed an apple on the table and declared the region ought to be called Fruitland Valley. The idea prevailed, and when a post office was established by M. C. Peltier, in 1887, three names were sent in and Fruitland was selected. (Mrs. Anna J. Thompson, in Names MSS., Letter 128.) Fuca, see Neah Bay.

Fucas Pillar, near Tatoosh Island, at Cape Flattery, at the northwestern corner of Clallam County. The rock is first spoken of in what is now often called the "Myth of Juan de Fuca" and first published in Samuel Purchas His Pilgrims, 1624. Many efforts were made to identify the pillar among the rocks at that place. Captain Meares saw such a rock on June 29, 1788, and called it "Pinnacle Rock." Captain Vancouver, 1792, denied the existence of the rock and later recorded one near the mainland after passing Tatoosh Island. The Wilkes Expedition, 1841, published a drawing of "De Fuca's Pillar" in the Narrative, Volume IV, page 496. George Davidson, in the United States Coast Survey Report for 1858, page 412, says that from the top of Tatoosh Island he saw a leaning rocky column, seventy-five feet high, to the southeastward and close under the face of the cape. Dean Henry Landes, State Geologist of Washington, locates Fuca's Pillar as a rocky islet near the beach, about one mile south of Cape Flattery, with an elevation of 140 feet. (A Geographical Dictionary of Washington, Bulletin No. 17, of the Washington Geological Survey, page 142.)

Washington AHGP | Geographic Names

Source: Washington Historical Quarterly, Volume 8 - 14