Oak Point, Washington
"Oak Point, a town on the Columbia River in the southwestern part of Cowlitz County. On Sunday October 28, 1792, Lieutenant W.R. Broughton, who was exploring the Columbia River in the armed tender Chatham for Captain Vancouver wrote in his log: 'or the first time in this river some oak trees were seen, one of which measured thirteen feet in girth'; this, therefore, obtained the name of Oak Point....Oak Point became a great landmark. It was mentioned by Alexander Henry, the Younger, on January 9, 1914....This point is on the Oregon side of the Columbia but the Pioneer botanist, David Douglas, who mentioned it frequently, located it on the north bank while describing the oak trees. 'Plentiful on the north banks of that stream sixty miles from the ocean, and from that circumstance named by Capt. Vancouver named 'Oak Point.' 1792.' He gave the tree its botanical name Quercus Garryana, saying: 'I have great pleasure in dedicating this species to N. Gerry, Esq., Deputy Governor of the Hudson Bay company, as a sincere though simple token of regard.'.....Hubert Howe Bancroft says that Oak Point Mills were built on the north side of the river in the summer of 1850 by a man named Dyer for Abernethy and Clark of Oregon City." Origin of Washington Geographic Names, 1923