After a multi-year effort and several proposals by the Oregon Geographic Names Board, the U.S. Forest Service, and Oregon Black Pioneers, two geographic places in Oregon with a history of racially insensitive names have been renamed to honor Black Oregonians.
On September 18, 2024 the U.S. Board on Geographic Names approved proposals to change the name of Negro Jack Creek in Tillamook County to Jack Creek, and the name of Negro Creek in Douglas County to Triple Nickles Creek. Both names have been changed in the Geographic Names Information System, and federal maps will be updated as their revision cycles come up. These two geographic features had both previously used the N word in their names. In 1964, the USBGN replaced the slur with the then more acceptable “Negro” in placenames nationwide.
Triple Nickles Creek honors the 555th Parachute Infantry Battalion, a segregated all-Black Army unit created during WWII. Popularly known as the Triple Nickles, the 555th trained as smokejumpers to put out remote wildfires in Oregon caused by Japanese balloon bombs. Jack Creek honors a man known only as “Jack” who lived alone in a remote cabin in the Tillamook County forest in the 1890s. The complete identity of this man remains unknown.
“One of the most gratifying parts of our work at Oregon Black Pioneers is to participate in renaming projects. Removing antiquated racial terms allows us to right past wrongs, and honor historic Black men and women in the process,”says OBP Executive Director Zachary Stocks. “We are so grateful for the effort and leadership of the Oregon Geographic Names Board and its members in advancing these two proposals, particularly our Emeritus Board member Gwen Carr and our friend Dr. Bob Zybach.”
Bruce Fisher from the Oregon Geographic Names Board adds, “This was an effort that took years to achieve but we removed two offensive place names and replaced them with names that help enrich Oregon’s Black history.”
Oregon Black Pioneers has contributed to successful renaming efforts before. In November of 2020 the USBGN voted in favor of changing Jackson County’s “Negro Ben Mountain” to Ben Johnson Mountain, honoring the life of the early Black settler for whom the mountain was named. Oregon has only a few remaining geographic places which use the word “Negro,” however many places which use racist language to describe Chinese, Jewish, and Native Americans remain.
Photo: 555th Parachute Infantry Battalion parachuting into a forest in Oregon to fight a wilderness fire caused by Japanese balloon bombs. Smoke from the fire can be seen in the lower right. May 1945. USDA Forest Service photo.