Coal Oil Bend was named after an event in which a wagon took the turn too sharply and spilled coal oil on the roadway. Later on, Frank Meggers described a ride up the road in his 1916 Ford this way: "We took off up the old Henness Pass Road, past the Tannery Ranch, across Campbell Creek, the Yore Meadows, Coal Oil Bend, with the sunlight filtering through a canopy of pine, fir and oak; then through the clearing at the Sleighville House and stayed on the ridge to the turnoff down into Gale's Orchard."