John Day's Bad Day

Time for some Oregon history about an early 1800s hunter and trapper named John Day who had his name attached to two towns (John Day and Daysville) two rivers (the big one in Grant County, the little one in Clatsop County), a Columbia River dam and the John Day Fossil Beds National Monument. Not bad for a guy who was kind of feckless and was never connected to any grand deeds or significant discoveries.

His one claim to fame came from being in the wrong place at the wrong time.

Day had signed on with an expedition that was leaving from St. Louis to travel to Fort Vancouver, (now Astoria) where they would hunt and trap fur-bearing animals. Near the mouth of the river that would bear his name he became ill and could not keep up with the others and so was left behind.  Ramsay Crooks stayed with him to help until he could continue on.

Soon after the others had left, Day and Crooks were captured by a war party of Indians seeking revenge for the murder of one of their tribesmen. They didn't kill the trappers but they stole their weapons, their packs, and their clothing leaving them bare-ass naked and bootless on the bank of the Columbia River.

Although still alive, John and Ramsay were having a bad day.

They elected to go up that Columbia River tributary in hopes of finding help, the best of all bad options because they knew they couldn't survive trying to reach the distant Fort Vancouver.  The great Northwest in the early 1800s was no place for sissies, with or without clothing and boots.

The decision they made was a good one because a number of miles up the river they did find a party of trappers who saved their lives.  And when the story of the naked trappers spread, John Day was the name given to the river where it all happened.  Crooks returned to St. Louis but John Day lived out his life in the Oregon territory, killing furry creatures and marking sites with his fame.

Nursery song

Somewhere out there in our Coronavirus ravaged land there are still little kiddies who need to be comforted with nursery rhymes.  Who better to do that than the Grands and the Great-Grands who comprise the major share of my audience.

So in this time of need, I contribute this little ditty that my father sang to my sisters and me when we were crawlers and toddlers.  The fact that I can still remember the words after almost a century proves that it still has legs (any tune you make up will work):

I went to the animal fair

The birds and the beasts were there

A big baboon by the light of the moon

Was combing his auburn hair

The monkey, he got drunk

Then fell on the elephant's trunk

The elephant sneezed

and fell to his knees

And that was the end of the 

Monkey, monkey, monkey, monkey, monk.

The second verse is just like the first verse and the third verse is just like the second verse so get out there, Pilgrims, and comfort those little modern-day creepers and wobblers.