The Eastern Oregon community was not as quick to grow as neighboring Canyon City, which was the county seat and center of the bustling mining industry in the area.

[7] In April 1900, a local committee was elected, and the Oregon Legislature approved an Act incorporating the city of John Day on February 23, 1901.

[8] The largest part of early John Day was composed of the Chinese community, commonly called Tiger Town.

[citation needed] By 1887, John Day was home to nearly 1,000 Chinese immigrants, who had been attracted to the area by a gold rush 20 years earlier, many of whom were displaced by the 1885 fire in Canyon City.

[9] A trading post built in the area in the 1860s along The Dalles Military Road was purchased in 1887 by two Chinese immigrants, Lung On and Ing Hay.

They converted the trading post into a clinic, general store, and social center for the community, which continued to operate until the 1940s.

It is now operated in conjunction with the Oregon Parks and Recreation Department and is one of the premier surviving examples of a 19th-century Chinese apothecary shop.

Cenozoic age volcanic rocks related to the long-lived Columbia River Basalt emplacement were deposited above these bedrock units.

From about the time the dinosaurs disappeared right up until the Pleistocene, the region was subjected to significant volcanism and other processes that preserved many fossils.

[5] Historically, industrial and agricultural businesses like gold mining, sheep and cattle ranching, timber harvesting, and lumber milling have been the economic mainstays of the community.

[15] Other employments, such as in recreation, health care, and government (the headquarters of the Malheur National Forest administration is located in John Day) now account for a majority of jobs in the city.