Shitepoke Creek

Shitepoke Creek is a short tributary of Salmon Creek, which is a tributary of the Middle Fork Willamette River in Lane County, Oregon, in the United States. Arising between Dead Mountain and Eagle Butte in the Cascade Range, it flows south into the creek about 7 miles (11 km) east of Oakridge. Its entire course lies within the Willamette National Forest.[3]

Shitepoke Creek
Shitepoke Creek is located in Oregon
Shitepoke Creek
Location of the mouth of Shitepoke Creek in Oregon
Location
CountryUnited States
StateOregon
CountyLane
Physical characteristics
SourceCascade Range
 • locationnear Dead Mountain, Willamette National Forest
 • coordinates43°47′43″N 122°22′02″W[1]
 • elevation2,972 ft (906 m)[2]
MouthSalmon Creek (Oregon)
 • location
east of Oakridge
 • coordinates
43°46′41″N 122°21′36″W[1]
 • elevation
1,611 ft (491 m)[1]

Shitepoke is said by the author of From Squaw Tit to Whorehouse Meadow: How Maps Name, Claim, and Inflame to refer to a heron's tendency to defecate while flying.[4] Merriam-Webster says that the word, a combination of shite and poke, refers to a heron's tendency to defecate when startled.[5] Noting that the word shite "is not now in decent use", The Compact Edition of the Oxford English Dictionary (OED) of 1971 defines shitepoke as "the small green heron of North America", Butorides virescens. The OED's usage example is: "gulls, shitepokes, cranes".[6]

See also

References
  1. "Shitepoke Creek". Geographic Names Information System (GNIS). United States Geological Survey. November 28, 1980. Retrieved January 26, 2016.
  2. Source elevation derived from Google Earth search using GNIS source coordinates.
  3. "United States Topographic Map". United States Geological Survey. Retrieved January 26, 2016 – via Acme Mapper.
  4. Monmonier, Mark (September 15, 2008). From Squaw Tit to Whorehouse Meadow: How Maps Name, Claim, and Inflame. University of Chicago Press. p. 70. ISBN 978-0-226-53464-0.
  5. "shitepoke". Merriam-Webster. Retrieved 26 January 2016.
  6. The Compact Edition of the Oxford English Dictionary: Complete Text Reproduced Micrographically. Vol. II. Oxford University Press. 1971. p. 2791.



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