Who Was John Day?
After the drama of the Painted Hills, we reached the town of John Day just in time for the last 4:00 tour of the day at the Kam Wah Chung and Company Museum. This fascinating artifact remembers the history of the many thousands of Chinese immigrants who helped build the U.S. west. The town of John Day had a very large Chinese population in the late 1800s, and their leaders were two Chinese immigrants (one a business man, the other a doctor, Ing “Doc” Hay and Lung On) who ran a very successful business from this small building--they also lived here, as well as renting space to 16+ immigrant boarders who slept on four wooden platforms in the back room!
John Day (the town) was smaller than I pictured. It was basically a small business strip, a couple of restaurants, and a gorgeous old church that had been converted into a historical society. Tom konked out and got a good night's sleep. I walked around the town a bit and watched the sun set, before also turning in. The next day (Monday) was another day of heavy driving, hitting the southeastern tour of the Diamond Loop area.
Who Was John Day?
"John Day is such a common name in this part of Oregon (it is affixed to two rivers, three towns, a dam, a series of fossil beds, a valley, and several parks) that you might assume the original John Day was a early pioneer settler. In fact, the eponymous John Day never visited any of the places that now carry his name. A hunter from Virginia, Day was hired to provide meat for the Pacific Fur Company expedition led by Wilson Price Hunt in 1812. Thirty miles east of The Dalles ... Day and another mountain man were ambushed by Native Americans, who robbed them and left them naked and injured. The two survived the ordeal and eventually made their way to Fort Astoria." Moon Handbooks: Oregon, page 527.