Up "Jazz Creek" in Oregon

[Bapopik at AOL.COM]

    A reply from Oregon.
--Barry Popik


Subj:   Re: "Jazz Creek" naming
Date:   10/24/2002 11:28:05 PM Eastern Standard Time
From:   <A HREF="mailto:jkohnen at easystreet.com">jkohnen at easystreet.com</A>
To: <A HREF="mailto:Bapopik at aol.com">Bapopik at aol.com</A>

Hello Barry Popik,

Sorry my reply took a while--I was out of town. And I have no answer for you.
I tried the standard book, "Oregon Place Names" and the Univ. of Oregon's
"Atlas of...", the state "Atlas of ...", plus web sites for Clackamas
County's Bull of the Woods Wilderness (the location of Jazz Creek) and Sweet
Home (Linn County) where one can find Jazz Creek Reservoir (named for the
same creek).

You might try a question through email to
<A HREF="http://www.sweet-home.or.us/quick_facts.html#Questions">http://www.sweet-home.or.us/quick_facts.html#Questions</A>
or to an Oregon history news list
<A HREF="mailto:overland-trails at yahoogroups.com">overland-trails at yahoogroups.com</A>

Now you've got me curious. It's surprising that there's only 2 "jazz" place
names in the US. Wasn't "jazz" a slang word for making love before it was
applied to a music form? (like rock and roll). When was "jazz" in use for the
first time? I couldn't even find out when jazz creek was named. Many places
in Oregon have names that changed,  a popular name that was so persistant
that it eventually replaced the "official" name, names that are corruptions
of Indian or foreign words (like the word "Oregon" or "Silver" Lake rather
then "Silvetry's" Lake), or an English replacement for a like-sounding word
(like Willamette for the Wil-lamt). Your question is more complicated than it
looks.

Good luck,

Patricia Kohnen