Quaht Point ~ Quo-doultz-spu-den Origin Washington Geographical Names

Quaht Port, see Port Discovery.
Ouaht-sum, see Cape Shoalwater.
Quak, see Sidney.
Qualam Point, see Gordon Point.
Oualax River, see Puyallup.
Oualla Creek, see Squalicum Creek.

Quatermaster Harbor, a bay between Vashon and Maury Islands, in the southwestern part of King County. The Wilkes Expedition, 1841, named many points in that vicinity for petty officers of the crews and then named the harbor as a fancied haven for their spirits. (Hydrography, Volume XXIII., Atlas, chart 78.)

Quatsap Point, off the mouth of the Duckabush River, Hood Canal. The name is of Indian origin and was first used by the Wilkes Expedition, 1841. (Hydrography, Volume XXIII., Atlas, chart 78.)

Queen Anne Hill, a much used local name in Seattle. About 1880, such citizens as C. B. Bagley, F. H. Osgood, A. B. Stewart, A. M. Brooks, G. G. Lyon, Sutcliffe Baxter, George H. Preston, D. N. Baxter and others built homes in the then prevailing Queen Anne style of architecture. Rev. Daniel Bagley jokingly asked folks if they were not "going out to Queen Anne Town." The name has persisted as to the hill, causing wonderment to new-comers. (C. B. Bagley, in Names MSS. Letter 284.

Queen City of the Sound, a pet name for Seattle.

Queenhithe, "To the open bay, on the coast to the north of Destruction Island, Mears gave the name of Queenhithe. (1788). Queenhithe is said to be a village on the Thames." (J. G. Kohl in Pacific Railroad Reports, Volume XII., Part L, chapter XV, page 266.) Coalpo reported on April 3, 1814, two ships trading at Queenhithe. (Henry-Thompson Journals, Coues edition, Volume II, page 864.) The Wilkes Expedition, 1841, located Queenhithe at about the present Hoh Head. The name does not appear on the more recent charts.

Quests, a river and mountain in the central and southwestern parts of Jefferson County. James G. Swan wrote: "Next north of the Queniult tribe are the Quai'tso." (Northwest Coast, page 211.) His book was published in 1857 and in that same year the map of the Surveyor General of Washington Territory showed Queets River. (United States Public Documents, Serial Number 877.) In later years, when the river was found to have its rise from the snows of one of the Olympic Mountains, that peak received the name of Queets Mountain.

Quelaiult River, see Quillayute River.

Que-Lap'ton-Lilt, the name of an Indian village at the mouth of the Willapa River where Captain Charles Stewart later secured a claim. (James G. Swan, Northwest Coast, page 221.)

Queniult River, see Quinault River.

Querquellin River, east of Bay Center, Willapa Bay, in the northwestern part of Pacific County. James G. Swan says the stream had this name but was also called at times, "Mouse River". (Northwest Coast, page 74)

Quiarlpi, the name of a few Indian families living at Kettle Falls. The name means basket people from the circumstance of their using baskets to catch fish. (Wilkes Expedition, 1841, Narrative, Volume IV., page 444.)

Quilceda Creek, a small stream on the Tulalip Indian Reservation near Everett, Snohomish County. In the Indian treaty of January 22, 1855 the creek is mentioned under the name "Kwiltseh-da".

Quilcene, a bay, the northwestern projection of Dabop Bay, in the eastern part of Jefferson County. A town on the bay bears the same name. The word has been spelled "Colcene", "Colseed," "Quilceed." Rev. Myron Eels, for many years a missionary among the Hood Canal Indians, says: "Quil-ceed is a Twana name, from quil-ceed-o-bish, the name of a band of Twanas who lived on quilceed bay. It means 'salt-water people', in distinction from the S-kaw-kaw-bish, or 'fresh-water people', another band of the same tribe." (American Anthropologist, for January, 1892.) Quilcene is the form on most recent charts including No. 6450 of the United States Coast and Geodetic Survey.

Quillayute River, flowing into the Pacific Ocean in the southwestern part of Clallam County. A small Indian Reservation at the mouth of the river has the same name. The tribe of Indians there with that name was well known to early navigators and traders. The word has had many spellings, but Quillayute has been approved by the United States Geographic Board. (Fifth Report, 1890 to 1920, page 267.)

Quimper Peninsula, between Port Discovery and Port Townsend Harbor, in the northwestern part of Jefferson County. Manuel Quimper, in 1790, had named Port Discovery "Puerto de Bodega y Quadra" and his own name had been placed by the Spaniards on New Dungeness Bay as "Puerto de Quimper". (Charts reproduced in United States Public Documents, Serial Number 1557.) These with other Spanish names have been removed, but the United States Coast Survey seems to have been responsible for giving Quimper's name to the peninsula. (Captain George Davidson, Pacific Coast Pilot, pages 537 and 595.) The Wilkes Expedition, 1841, gave the name "Dickerson Peninsula". (Hydrography Volume XXIII, Atlas, chart 78.) That name has not persisted. The honor intended is revealed in the report: "The command of the exploring Expedition devolved upon me, by orders from the Hon. Mahlon Dickerson, then Secretary of the Navy, on the 20th March, 1838." (Narrative, Volume I., page xiii.)

Quinault, a lake, river and Indian Reservation in the northwestern part of Grays Harbor County. On the shore of the lake there is a post office with the same name. It was as the name of an Indian tribe that the name was first used. The Bureau of American Ethnology has collected an extensive synonymy. (Handbook of American Indians, Volume I., pages 342-343.) The present form, Quinault, has been approved by the United States Geographic Board. (Fifth Report 1890 to 1920, page 267.) The United States Coast and Geodetic Survey is now using the same form. (Chart 6002, corrected to June 25, 1921.)

Quinze River, a stream in the Cowlitz region, the identity of which has not been determined. In 1845, M. Vavasour wrote: "At the Cowlitz we procured horses and rode to Nisqually, a distance of about 60 miles. This route, or portage, as it is usually called, passes through small plains traversing the intervening points of woods, crossing the Ouinze, Sous, Vassels, Chute, and Nisqually Rivers all of which are fordable in the summer, but become deep and rapid in the winter and spring." "Secret Mission of Warre and Vavasour", in the Washington Historical Quarterly, Volume III., April, 1912, page 151.)

Ouish-cum River, an Indian name for Hoquiam River. (James Tilton's "Map of a Part of Washington Territory", September 1, 1859, reproduced in United, States Public Documents, Serial Number 1026.)

Ouob-quo, an Indian name for Cedar River. (J. A. Costello, The Siwash, Seattle, 1895.)

Quo-doultz-spu-den, see Black River.

Washington AHGP | Geographic Names

Source: Washington Historical Quarterly, Volume 8 - 14