was reestablished Tihis office was discuary 20, 1865, wice, with the with Joh shipments, therman County callroad just west ok, For a good took its name from John Day River. The post office, with the name John Day City, was established January 20, 1865, with Abraham Himes first postmaster. This office was discontinued in March, 1871. The office was reestablished in July, 1879, with the name John Day. For a good many years there was a station on the railroad just west of the mouth of John Day River in Sherman County called John Day, but due to confusion in shipments, the name was changed to Day. Similar difficulties with John Day station at the mouth of John Day River in Clatsop County resulted in a change to Van Dusen, for a well-known county family.
JOHN DAY RIVER, Clatsop County. This stream, like the other of the same name, in eastern Oregon, was named for John Day of the Astor-Hunt Overland party of 1811-12. For information about him, see under the other heading, JOHN Day RIVER. John Day Point, just east of the river, takes its name from the stream, Lewis and Clark mention the river in their journals for November 27, 1805, and give an Indian name Kekemarke. Wilkes, in U. S. Exploring Expedition, volume XXIII, Hydrography, atlas, shows this as Swan Creek. There was formerly a railroad station near this river, called John Day, but some years ago the name was changed to Van Dusen, in honor of the pioneer family of Astoria.
JOHN DAY RIVER, Gilliam, Grant, Sherman, Jefferson, Umatilla, Wasco and Wheeler counties. John Day River is one of the important rivers of Oregon, but due to the fact that it drains an area with little rainfall, the stream does not deliver much water. If it is remarkable in this respect, it is still more so for the great amount of suspended material it carries from its drainage basin. Measured in tons per square mile, the John Day carries off 198 a year, or practically double that of any other important stream in the state. (This calculation is at Dayville.) Its total delivery at the Columbia is more than 750,000 tons of suspended matter a year. It bears the name of John Day (1771-1819) of the Astor overland party. John Day was a Virginia backwoodsman. He was a member of the Astor-Hunt overland party, and he and Ramsay Crooks fell behind the main party in the Snake River country in the winter of 1811-12. They had several terrible experiences, but eventually got through the snow of the Blue Mountains and fell in with friendly Walla Walla Indians. These Indians aided the wanderers and sent them on their way down the Columbia River. In the vicinity of the mouth of John Day River Crooks and Day met hostile Indians who robbed them, even of their clothes. The two naked men started back to the Walla Walla country, but fortunately were rescued by Robert Stuart's party which was descending the Columbia. John Day's name was applied to the Oregon river apparently because it was near the mouth of the stream that the two men were attacked. According to one account John Day went insane in Astoria in 1814 and was buried there, but T. C. Elliott cites McKenzie's statement that Day died in the Snake River country in 1820. See OHQ, volume XVII, page 373. Lewis and Clark named this stream Lepages River on October 21, 1805, after one of their party. John Work uses the name Day's River in his journal for June 25, 1825. (Washington Historical Quarterly, volume V, page 86.) Peter Skene Ogden mentions John Day's River by that name November 29, 1825. (OHQ, volume X, page 337.) For editorial by Harvey W. Scott
