“I assumed ‘that is loopy,'” Pleasure McClain, 81, mentioned when she noticed the mountain’s identify in an area paper and felt referred to as to motion.
“I made a decision possibly I am unable to do something, however I’ll look into what it takes to vary the identify of the mountain,” McClain mentioned.
Swastika Mountain obtained its identify from the extinct city of Swastika — which reportedly took its identify from the proprietor of a cattle ranch who would model his cattle with the image, Kerry Tymchuk, the Boyle Household Government Director of the Oregon Historic Society informed CNN.
“This was within the early 1900’s, lengthy earlier than the image turned related to the Nazis and Hitler,” Tymchuk mentioned. The rancher used the image as a result of it was a Sanskrit image which means “good luck” or “well-being,” he added.
Nevertheless, after WWII, the mountain identify by no means modified.
“I believe that if somebody had proposed a brand new identify, it will have been modified way back,” Tymchuk mentioned. The mountain will not be very well-known, he mentioned, and is in the midst of a Nationwide Forest and pretty inaccessible.
On the similar time, one other proposal was forwarded to the OGNB to rename the mountain “Mount Halo,” in line with Tymchuk. This could be to honor Chief Halito, often known as Chief Halo, of the Yoncalla Kalapuya Tribe, who had lived in a village 20 miles west of the mountain.
McClain mentioned she then determined to relinquish her proposal in favor of naming the mountain after Chief Halo.
Chief Halito, typically shortened to Chief Halo, was a frontrunner of the Yoncalla Kalapuya tribe
Courtesy Oregon Historic Society
“For me it is like returning among the heritage again to the world,” Lewis mentioned.
And Tymchuk agrees.
“The names that we give geographic options mirror each our historical past and our values,” Tymchuk mentioned. And he feels eradicating the identify ‘Swastika’ is lengthy overdue.
Whereas everybody agrees on the identify change, it could not occur till the tip of the yr as a consequence of guidelines governing name-changing proposals.
As for McClain, she mentioned she’s pleased about the opportunity of the change. “One individual could make a distinction,” McClain mentioned.