Bull Run is an

unincorporated community An unincorporated area is a region that is not governed by a local municipal corporation. Widespread unincorporated communities and areas are a distinguishing feature of the United States and Canada. Most other countries of the world either hav ...

Clackamas County Clackamas County is one of the 36 counties in the U.S. state of Oregon. As of the 2020 census, the population was 421,401, making it Oregon's third-most populous county. Its county seat is Oregon City. The county was named after the Native ...

Oregon Oregon () is a state in the Pacific Northwest region of the Western United States. The Columbia River delineates much of Oregon's northern boundary with Washington, while the Snake River delineates much of its eastern boundary with Idah ...

, United States. It is located about northeast of

Sandy Sandy may refer to: People and fictional characters *Sandy (given name), including a list of people and fictional characters * Sandy (surname), a list of people *Sandy (singer), Brazilian singer and actress Sandy Leah Lima (born 1983) * (Sandy) ...

, near the Bull Run River and the powerhouse of the defunct

Mount Hood Railway and Power Company The Mount Hood Railway and Power Company, also known as the Mount Hood Company, initiated hydroelectric development in the Sandy River basin in the U.S. state of Oregon in 1906. Its Bull Run Hydroelectric Project included a powerhouse on the Bull ...

(later the Bull Run Hydroelectric Project).

George H. Himes George Henry Himes (May 18, 1844January 6, 1940) was an Oregon pioneer and the first curator of the Oregon Historical Society. His collection of diaries and notebooks preserved the details of the lives and experiences of many pioneers. He is the ...

believed the name "Bull Run" may have been because of the presence of wild cattle along the river in the pioneer era of 1849–55. This story is corroborated by settler

Charles B. Talbot Charles is a masculine given name predominantly found in English and French speaking countries. It is from the French form ''Charles'' of the Proto-Germanic name (in runic alphabet) or ''*karilaz'' (in Latin alphabet), whose meaning was "f ...

, who said that cattle would escape from the early immigrants to the area and ran wild for several years, and so they named the area Bull Run. A 1920s story in the '' Gresham Outlook'' states that in the 1860s, a man named Frank Mognet was living in the Cedar Creek area near Sandy. He was attempting to catch a bull that had gone wild when it ran into the then-unnamed stream. Because this was just after the Battle of Bull Run, and the bull had given him a "strong run", he immediately named the stream Bull Run. The first post office in the area, established in 1893, was named Unavilla. It is unknown why that name was chosen. The name of the post office was changed Bullrun in 1895, and to Camp Namanu in 1939. The summer-only Camp Namanu post office closed in 1953. In 1915, Bull Run had a population of 100, a public school and a large

gladiolus ''Gladiolus'' (from Latin, the diminutive of ''gladius'', a sword) is a genus of perennial cormous flowering plants in the iris family (Iridaceae). It is sometimes called the 'sword lily', but is usually called by its generic name (plural ''g ...

farm. The community was the eastern terminus of the Mt. Hood division of the Portland Railway, Light and Power Company interurban railroad. In 1940, Bull Run had a population of 35. Current

USGS The United States Geological Survey (USGS), formerly simply known as the Geological Survey, is a scientific agency of the United States government. The scientists of the USGS study the landscape of the United States, its natural resources, ...

topographic maps have Bull Run labeled as a "site", meaning there is no community there now, although the USGS still lists it as a

populated place Population typically refers to the number of people in a single area, whether it be a city or town, region, country, continent, or the world. Governments typically quantify the size of the resident population within their jurisdiction using a ...

in its

GNIS The Geographic Names Information System (GNIS) is a database of name and locative information about more than two million physical and cultural features throughout the United States and its territories, Antarctica, and the associated states of ...

References

External links

History of Portland interurbans
from pdxhistory.com, with map of route showing Bull Run Unincorporated communities in Clackamas County, Oregon 1893 establishments in Oregon Populated places established in 1893 Unincorporated communities in Oregon Railway towns in Oregon {{ClackamasCountyOR-geo-stub