Weaver on maps, Woodin in all references, the actual name of a creek that runs through the middle of Battle Ground is a bit of a mystery.
In the July 24 edition of the Reflector, photos of an American bullfrog and crayfish residing in “Weaver” Creek created commotion among local historians who stated the creek’s name was actually Woodin.
On just about every map, however, that creek is physically labeled as Weaver Creek. But, local historian Louise Tucker doesn’t understand the origins of that name.
She first found the name popping up in maps of Clark County, but she and other pioneer families only knew of the Salmon Creek tributary as Woodin Creek.
“All the old timers referred to it as Woodin Creek,” she reported in her “Battle Ground… In and Around,” history book completed in 1976.
Joseph Woodin, spelled as Wooden in some references, homesteaded at the headwaters of the tributary located southwest of Battle Ground Lake. An 1888 map of Clarke County (now Clark) doesn’t name the creek but shows the plot of Woodin’s homestead at the headwaters. In a 1961 map of Clark County, the creek is given the name Weaver.
“I have never found a reason for the creek to be named Weaver,” Tucker said in an email. “As far as I can tell, this is not a Battle Ground pioneer name nor a contributor to local society. The Weaver name showed up on one early map and BINGO, it’s been around ever since.”
Woodin is an important figure in Clark County history, however.
“The first mention found of his being in Clark County was when he was hired by Territorial Legislator Henry Caples to help the family with chores on a farm along the Columbia in 1856,” Tucker’s history book stated.
Woodin then became a postal carrier that same year, when he delivered mail by horseback from Vancouver to Pollock’s Landing, across the East Fork Lewis River from present day La Center. That mail route turned into a freight and passenger business as more post offices became established from Vancouver to Amboy. A trip from Vancouver to Barberton, Hockinson, Brush Prairie and upward to Battle Ground, through the woods and off to Amboy’s post office, would need an overnight’s stay in the Lewisville area, “Battle Ground … In and Around,” stated.
Toward the end of the 1860s, Woodin and four other Battle Ground pioneers carved a trail along the creek, from Brush Prairie north to Battle Ground.
“At the head of this creek was a fine spring,” Tucker’s book stated. “Joe Woodin chose this as his homestead site.”
As part of the city of Battle Ground’s bicentennial project, the creek’s name on watershed signs was Woodin, not Weaver. Maps printed after 1961, however, still show the name Weaver, not Woodin.
