There’s an unincorporated community situated at 4,511 feet elevation in the high desert of South Central Oregon that goes by the name of Plush. Plush had a population of 52 in July 2015, a grocery store and a one-teacher K-8 school with fewer than 10 students.
Somehow, the word “plush” appears a little out of sync with the town’s demographics and surrounding sagebrush-covered rangeland and high mountains.
How the tiny town, a 40-mile drive east of Lakeview, got its unusual name is a surprise. Lewis A. McArthur’s authoritative book titled Oregon Geographic Names says the town was named after one of its residents, a Piute Indian celebrity named Plush.
So where did the Indian get his name? McArthur continues, “This was the result of a card game that he got into. The game was a frame-up. The Indian was dealt a flush by another member of the party, who held a better one. (The Indian) … could not pronounce the word ‘flush’ and called it ‘plush,’ and that was the name he subsequently went by.”
Today, visitors come to Plush seeking good hang-gliding sites, collecting semi-precious Sunstones or on their way to the nearby Hart Mountain Antelope Refuge.
Sources: McArthur, Lewis A., and Lewis L. McArthur. Oregon Geographic Names. 4thth ed. Portland, Ore.: Oregon Historical Society, 1974. 591-92. Print; "Hart Mountain Cabin." Hart Mountain Cabin. Hart Mountain Enterprises, 2016. Web. 26 Mar. 2016. https://hartmountaincabin.com/Contact-Us.php; "Plush, OR Profile: Facts, Map & Data." OR HomeTownLocator. HTL, Inc., 2016. Web. 26 Mar. 2016.
