A Lane County mountain in the Umpqua National Forest has been renamed from Swastika Mountain to Mount Halo following approval by the U.S Board on Geographic Names.
The process began when Joyce McClain, a Eugene resident, discovered the name while reading about hikers who had gone missing on the mountain. She then submitted a petition for the name change to the Oregon Historical Society.
McClain had originally submitted “Mount Umpqua” as a suggestion for the new name. David Lewis, an assistant professor of Native Studies at Oregon State University, submitted Mount Halo as the new name to honor a former local Chief of the Yoncalla Kalapuya Tribe.
According to the Oregon Encyclopedia, a project of the Oregon Historical Society, Chief Halito, often shortened to Halo, lived in the Umpqua Valley in western Oregon. Halito and his family remained living on the land of their lifelong friends, the Applegate family, despite efforts to remove tribes to reservations. The Applegates built a house for Halito’s family on their land when Halito refused to go to the Grande Ronde Reservation.
Despite this, Halito and his sons lived briefly on the reservation until receiving a land allotment in the Umpqua Valley.
Halo’s name is honored at Halo Rock and Halo Creek. Both are located near the city of Yoncalla. Chief Halo is estimated to have lived until at least 70 years old.
The mountain was believed to have been named for a cattle farm that used the swastika for either Hinduism, Buddhism or Jainism religious reasons. According to Lewis, the farm was 200 miles away from the mountain.
The mountain was named for a now-extinct post office, founded in 1909, located near the mountain.
Name changes can only be requested for features that appear on a topographical map, according to Kerry Tymchuk, executive director of the Oregon Geographic Names Board. He said that the job of the board is to review an application for a name change and pass it on to the United States names board with either a “yes” or “no” recommendation for whether or not the name should be changed.
“The U.S. board is the ultimate authority,” Tymchuk said. “They can agree with us, not agree with us, or send the recommendation back and ask for more information.”
The OGNB voted and approved the name change in December 2022. The U.S. Board on Geographic Names approved Mount Halo as the new name on April 13.
Tymchuk said the name change would have been made a lot sooner if people knew about the mountain. He said many people probably didn’t know it even existed because the mountain is in such a rural location.
According to the U.S. Geological Survey, decisions made by the Board on Geographic Names are immediately official for federal use. If a Tribe or other interested person believes the replacement name is still not appropriate, they may propose to change the name through the BGN’s regular process which is available on the USGS website.
