Soap Creek Valley · Monograph #13 · 15 of 29
14. Legends and Stories
14. Legends and Stories of WILLIAM A. DAVIES — printed p. 23 — recorded February 19, 1979 at Peavy Hall, Oregon State University, Corvallis, Oregon. Every printed page has its own permanent link.
Jackson, Royal G., Jennifer Lee, and Bob Zybach 1997. William Davies. Biographical Sketch and Management of OSU Research Forest: 1946-1973. Soap Creek Valley History Project, Monograph #13. Oregon State University Research Forests and College of Forestry, Corvallis, Oregon: 83 pp.
p. 47 = printed page 47 of the original book; the link on each page number is a permanent address you can send to anyone.
Provenance
- Narrator
- William A. Davies
- Recorded
- February 19, 1979 · Peavy Hall, Oregon State University, Corvallis, Oregon
- Interviewer
- Royal G. Jackson, Jennifer Lee
- Printed pages
- p. 23
- Original
- http://www.nwmapsco.com/ZybachB/Oral_Histories/Soap_Creek_Valley/13_Davies/Jackson-Lee_1997.pdf
- Accessioned
- From Bob Zybach’s upload, 23 August 2026
THE RADAR INSTALLATION
Royal G. Jackson / Jennifer Lee: What do you remember about McCulloch Peak? About the radar installation that was there?
William A. Davies: Well, the fellow who was on the faculty here... in the what department? The weather department? I'll say the atmospheric science.
Royal G. Jackson / Jennifer Lee: Fred Decker?
William A. Davies: Fred Decker. Fred, I think, is the one that named that. Fred Decker got the idea of having a weather station up there and he got all this money, equipment, and everything from the Navy; I think it was from the Navy.
Royal G. Jackson / Jennifer Lee: Signal Corps, I think he said.
William A. Davies: Signal Corps, or something. Yes, somewhere he got it. Well, to get up there was the problem. Now, to get up there he had to go through some of T. J. Starker's land and he had to go on this private land part way up [that was owned by someone else]. Boy, that guy is a stickler; he didn't want anybody going over his road. But, I guess, he [Fred] got permission to go up just to take care of that thing. Well, we had planned to build a road up there for him, through McDonald Forest, so he could take anybody he wanted to up there, but the thing petered out before that time. We had all that equipment up there, and then finally they gave it up for some reason. I don't know why. And then the vandals went up there. They just backed up there with motorcycles and tore everything up.
Royal G. Jackson / Jennifer Lee: Did you ever go up there much during its operation?
William A. Davies: No, I went up there once with Fred and looked at it, and that's about all. rye been in close to it a lot of times, because it's right on the edge of our forest. But, I think, that's the way it got its name; Fred must have named it, I don't know. But he had that weather station up there. He was very proud of getting all this money from - I thought it was the Navy, but maybe it was the Signal Corps.
LEGENDS AND STORIES
Royal G. Jackson / Jennifer Lee: Did you ever know anything about this legend of the gold filled miner's boot on Calloway Creek?
William A. Davies: No.
Royal G. Jackson / Jennifer Lee: Did you ever hear that?
William A. Davies: No, that's one I didn't hear. I thought I had heard all of them, but...
Royal G. Jackson / Jennifer Lee: How about the two maples at the entrance to the Arboretum?
William A. Davies: According to McCulloch, those were two fenceposts, corner fence posts. You know, they put in bigger posts at the end where they're going to have a gate, where there is more pull on it, and those were two maple fence posts planted there; and they sprouted, took off.
Royal G. Jackson / Jennifer Lee: What about the story of the people that rode out in the buggy and put their buggy whips in the ground, and that's what these grew from? Have you ever heard that story?
William A. Davies: Yes, I heard that directly from Blake who was the one who told me about the Indians going by his house.
Speaker attribution inferred from typography where the printed page prints only Q and A.
How to cite this item
The first line is the citation as it is printed in the original. Use it when you cite the work itself. Use the second when you cite this page.
- As printed
- Jackson, Royal G., Jennifer Lee, and Bob Zybach 1997. William Davies. Biographical Sketch and Management of OSU Research Forest: 1946-1973. Soap Creek Valley History Project, Monograph #13. Oregon State University Research Forests and College of Forestry, Corvallis, Oregon: 83 pp.
- This page
- Davies 1997. 14. Legends and Stories, p. 23. America's School Trust Library, The Zybach Collection. https://schooltrusts.org/collections/zybach/soap-creek/m13-davies/14-legends-and-stories/ (accessed 2026).
- Cite this passage
- Davies 1997, p. 23 — Monograph #13:23
https://schooltrusts.org/collections/zybach/soap-creek/m13-davies/14-legends-and-stories/#p23 Swap 23 for whichever printed page you are quoting: every page number in the margin is its own address.
More on citing this collection: How to cite the Zybach Collection.
Something wrong on this page? Submit a correction — this page is already selected. See how that works.
