John Day's River

Two rivers were named for John Day, and this is the one that lost the name. The other runs through eastern Oregon to the Columbia, where in April 1812 Day and Ramsay Crooks, stragglers from the Astorian overland party, were robbed and stripped near its mouth; company men named that river for him, and it kept the name. Here the stream was Day's River and its valley Day's Defile through the fur-trade years, until mapmakers settled on Little Lost River. Mackenzie recorded Day's death at the winter camp and buried him there. The grave's place is not known.

What the plaque says

John Day's River Fur traders named this stream for John Day, a pioneer trapper who died in the valley north of here, Feb. 16, 1820 John Day had started west with John Jacob Astor's Pacific Fur Company party that discovered Snake River Valley to the south of here in 1811. After 1816 he joined Donald Mackenzie's band of fur hunters who finally spent the winter of 1819-1820 in what now is known as little Lost River Valley. For many years, trappers and mapmakers referred to Mackenzie's campground as on John Day's River, which in now Little Lost River. 227 Text prepared by the Idaho Historical Society Marker made & installed by Idaho Transportation Department

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Experimental Breeder Reactor I — 19 mi
  The reactor that lit four bulbs in 1951 also suffered the first accidental breeder meltdown, and two engines for a nuclear bomber sit outside.

More markers nearby

• Nuclear Reactors — 16 mi
• Lost River — 16 mi
• Atoms for Peace — 19 mi
• Big Butte — 23 mi