JOHN DAY

city, Grant county, northeast central Oregon, U.S., situated at the confluence of John Day River and Canyon Creek, near the Strawberry Mountain Wilderness Area. A stopover on the Pony Express trail from The Dalles (220 mi northwest), it originated in the early 1860s, along with adjacent Canyon City, as a mining and cattle town. It was named for the river, which had in turn been named after a heroic Virginian scout of the Astor overland expedition (1811). The present city is a trading point for a cattle and mining region and is headquarters of the Malheur National Forest, which spreads over the foothills of the Blue Mountains. Timber, beef, and tourism are the economic mainstays. The nearby Herman and Eliza Oliver Historical Museum houses relics of the gold-mining days. Westward along the river is the John Day Fossil Beds National Monument, with fossils more than 30,000,000 years old, and Picture Gorge, with ancient Indian pictographs. Pop. (1990) 1,836.