21 Professional Land Surveyors of Oregon | www.plso.org Located on the south coast of Oregon at Port Orford, Humbug Mountain has been known by several names throughout history. First by the indigenous name of Me-tus and later by the white man names of Sugarloaf Mountain, Mount Franklin, and now Humbug Mountain. The mountain got its current name in 1851 when a party of explorers got lost after heading out in the wrong direction from Port Orford. Captain William C. Tichenor, founder of Port Orford, selected the name to “palliate the gross failure” of the party he had dispatched. Originally known as Tichenor’s Humbug Mountain, the name has since been shortened to just Humbug Mountain. Tichenor sailed to Portland from San Francisco in 1850 and along the way he took note of the harbor in the area of Port Orford. Returning in 1851, he founded the town and left nine men on the beach to secure his claim. They were immediately confronted by the local Indians who drove them away. The men left the fledgling Port Orford and traveled over 100 miles through the wilderness to the Umpqua Valley. Tichenor returned to Portland and immediately filed a Donation Land Claim. A June 1851 newspaper account in the Statesman newspaper, opined that two surveyors who arrived via the ship the PMSS Columbia and came prepared to lay out the town found the nine men missing and indications of a fierce battle which left men dead or wounded on both sides. The site of this contest is known as Battle Rock and can be visited via the Battle Rock Wayside Park just off Highway 101. Have you ever uttered the phrase “Bah Humbug” or anything close to that to ‘palliate your gross failure’ in some endeavor? Question continues Port Orford Beach, with Battle Rock in foreground, circa 1920 to circa 1930. Credit: Forest Service photo in the public domain. A June 1851 newspaper account in the Statesman newspaper, opined that two surveyors who arrived via the ship the PMSS Columbia and came prepared to lay out the town found the nine men missing and indications of a fierce battle which left men dead or wounded on both sides. The Lost Surveyor
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