A newspaper article from 1940 describes the naming of Oh Boy! camp on the Collawash River, except that it refers to it as "Oh! Boy."  I thought this might be a typo except that the article included a photo of a Forest Service sign also saying "Oh! Boy."  I have to wonder if the sign itself might have been in error and the writer of the article simply copied it.  To confuse the issue, that same writer had done an article two years earlier about the use of the term "Oh Boy!"  Throughout the earlier article he consistently wrote "Oh Boy!"  

FS maps (1958 to 67) are no help as they leave out the exclamation point altogether.  So does the 1956 Battle Ax quad map.

Aside from that grammar question, there are some interesting photos in that 1940 article.  One is the wooden sign at the camp, and another is a photo of a lookout tower at the site.  The lookout tower used trees to support a platform, similar to one at Hawk Mountain.  The location next to the Collawash River in the bottom of a narrow valley seems like an unlikely place for a fire lookout.  I had no idea that there had been anything like that at Oh Boy! (or is it Oh! Boy) camp.  Apparently that camp was a significant spot along the original Elk Lake trail back in the old days.

That is really interesting - but it seems like something is confused - there was no lookout at Oh Boy camp - the camp was along the Collawash (which the article states).  But then the pictures show a lookout tower, which looks suspiciously like the lookout tower on Hawk Mountain.  Here is a picture I took of a picture someone posted in the cabin on Hawk Mountain several years ago:

There is also this image from our historical photos which shows something similar:

It looks a lot like the tower in the first article, although it is a pretty bad image to make a really good comparison.  It is my understanding that the tower to the right in the above photo (which looks like the one in the article) was the first, temporary lookout - the one to the left in the above photo was the "permanent" lookout.

Have you ever seen the location of the Oh Boy camp along the Collawash?  It is pretty interesting - it hasn't been used in a long time, but it does look like it was a significant stop on the trail.  Here are a couple of pictures of what looks like it could have been an old camp kitchen:

There was a pretty large flat, cleared area around this place.  If you know where to look, you can still hike this portion of the Elk Lake trail - it connects with the 6380 road.

I've never seen a picture of a sign like that - would be interesting if it was really there.

I agree, it seems unlikely that there would be a fire lookout at Oh Boy.  But how can we say for sure that there wasn't?  Maybe it was a temporary-use kind of situation, manned only at times of high fire risk.  It might have been an expeditious place to set up that kind of thing, being on a main trail with a phone line and an established camp.  Or it could have simply been an editorial mistake at the newspaper.  I wish I knew.  Another mystery in the forest.

I think if you look at those photos, they look like the same structure to me.  That makes me believe they got confused somehow.  It seem awfully weird - I cannot see how building any kind of lookout in a narrow valley would be useful at all, honestly.

How did you find those stories?

I suppose the old adage of "don't believe everything you read in the newspaper" applies here.  What has me scratching my head though is that the writer states that he was actually at Oh Boy camp.  If there was no tower there, why would he suggest that there was?  I guess that will have to remain a mystery.

I've been doing some searching in the online archives of the Oregonian/Oregon Journal for anything related to the Clackamas District.  Some interesting items have turned up which I'll post now and then. 

The name Averill in the article about the avocet made me curious.  The Oregon Hikers page about Averill Lake says this:  "According to McArthur & McArthur's Oregon Geographic Names, the lake is named after Ed Averill, a "State Fish Protector for many years in the 1920s." "

Finley Lake must be named after the other guy in the byline:  William L. Finley.

Does anyone know have access to Oregon Geographic Names and/or know if my assumption is correct?

Kirk, you're right.  There's also Finley Wildlife Refuge named after him.

What about Gifford Lake?  Maybe it was one of these guys: Gifford, Ralph I., 1894-1947 or his father, Gifford, Benjamin A. 1859-1936.

OGN doesn't have a listing for Gifford Lake.

I guess Gifford Lake could also have been named after Gifford Pinchot.

Benjamin A. Gifford, his son Ralph, Wanda (Ralph's wife) and Ben (Wanda and Ralph's son) were all known for their scenic photography in the Pacific Northwest.  I'm guessing the lake was named for one or all the Gifford photographers.

Here's a snippet about the senior Gifford from the Oregon Encyclopedia: "Benjamin Gifford, who operated studios in Portland and The Dalles and was known for his images of the Columbia River Highway, central Oregon, the Portland area, and the Indigenous people who lived on or near the Warm Springs Reservation."