Marmot is an

unincorporated community An unincorporated area is a parcel of land that is not governed by a local general-purpose municipal corporation. (At p. 178.) They may be governed or serviced by an encompassing unit (such as a county) or another branch of the state (such as th ...

Clackamas County, Oregon Clackamas County ( ) is one of the List of counties in Oregon, 36 counties in the U.S. state of Oregon. As of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, the population was 421,401, making it Oregon's third-most populous county. Its county sea ...

, United States located in the

Mount Hood Corridor The Mount Hood Corridor is a part of Oregon between Sandy and Government Camp, in Clackamas County. It is named after Mount Hood and has served travelers going in both directions since the days of Native Americans and Oregon Trail migrants. Th ...

. It is within the boundaries of the Villages at Mount Hood, on a ridge known as Devil's Backbone, which lies between the

Sandy Sandy may refer to: People and fictional characters *Sandy (given name), including a list of people and fictional characters with the given name or nickname * Sandy (surname), a list of people * Sandy (Iranian music band), Iranian singer, comp ...

and Little Sandy rivers, along the historic

Barlow Road The Barlow Road (at inception, Mount Hood Road) is a historic road in what is now the U.S. state of Oregon. It was built in 1846 by Sam Barlow and Philip Foster, with authorization of the Provisional Legislature of Oregon, and served as the ...

(the final stretch of the

Oregon Trail The Oregon Trail was a east–west, large-wheeled wagon route and Westward Expansion Trails, emigrant trail in North America that connected the Missouri River to valleys in Oregon Territory. The eastern part of the Oregon Trail crossed what ...

). The community was named by Adolph (or Adolf) Aschoff, a

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany, the country of the Germans and German things **Germania (Roman era) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizenship in Germany, see also Ge ...

immigrant who was for many years a

forester A forester is a person who practises forest management and forestry, the science, art, and profession of managing forests. Foresters engage in a broad range of activities including ecological restoration and management of protected areas. Fores ...

and guide in the

Mount Hood Mount Hood, also known as Wy'east, is an active stratovolcano in the Cascade Range and is a member of the Cascade Volcanic Arc. It was formed by a subduction zone on the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast and rests in the Pacific N ...

area. When he settled in the area near the Sandy River in 1883, he found many animal burrows that, according to the local residents, were made by

marmot Marmots are large ground squirrels in the genus ''Marmota'', with 15 species living in Asia, Europe, and North America. These herbivores are active during the summer, when they can often be found in groups, but are not seen during the winter, w ...

s. He later discovered that they were actually made by the

mountain beaver The mountain beaver (''Aplodontia rufa'')Other names include boomer, mountain boomer, ground bear, giant mole, gehalis, sewellel, suwellel, showhurll, showtl, and showte, as well as a number of other Native American terms. "Mountain beaver" is a ...

, another rodent. When the post office was established in about 1886, Aschoff and two of his friends decided to name it "Marmot" on account of this error. Construction of the Mount Hood Highway in the 1920s diverted traffic away from Marmot, and fewer visitors came to stay at Aschoff's hotel. Aschoff sold the hotel in 1930, and died soon after. Marmot post office was discontinued in 1930. Most of the buildings burned to the ground in 1931, with the exception of Aschoff's museum, the post office, and a store. None of these structures remain today.

References

Portland metropolitan area Unincorporated communities in Clackamas County, Oregon 1886 establishments in Oregon Populated places established in 1886 Unincorporated communities in Oregon {{ClackamasCountyOR-geo-stub

See also

References