Bluebucket Creek, Grant and Harney Counties. This stream rises just west of Antelope Mountain in the southeastern part of Grant County, and after flowing through Antelope Swale in Harney County, joins a tributary of Malheur River. The name has been applied in recent years to preserve an interesting Oregon romance.
The mystery of the location of the real Bluebucket Creek will probably never be solved. Members of the Meek party of 1845 picked up yellow pebbles and hung them under a wagon by means of a blue bucket. The bucket was either lost or abandoned later, and it was not until several years had elapsed that the emigrants realized that they had probably found gold. An interesting discussion of the episode and possible locations of Bluebucket Creek may be found in Scott's History of the Oregon Country, volume III, page 336. It is generally thought that the discovery must have been on a tributary of either the John Day or of Malheur River, though suggestions that the locality was near Steens Mountain and also Tygh Valley have also been advanced. Columns have been written on the subject. As far as the writer knows there is little or nothing to connect the name of the stream in Harney County with the gold discovery, but it is used to preserve the tradition, and may not be far from the true locality.
Blue Mountain, Umatilla County. This is a station on the line of the Oregon-Washington Railroad & Navigation Company southwest of Milton. It is located on Dry Creek just north of the horseshoe curve made by the railroad in getting from Weston down into the Walla Walla Valley. When the railroad was being extended south from Walla Walla it was for some time dead ended at Blue Mountain, and as the station was the last one on the way into the Blue Mountains, it was named for those features, although no one seems to know just why the singular form was used.
