Editing Canyon City, Oregon (section)

==History==
Canyon City was established in June 1862 as a result of the discovery of gold in Canyon Creek, which flows from the south to meet the John Day River at John Day.<ref name="Golden Years">{{cite book|last=Potter|first=Miles F.|title=Oregon's Golden Years|year=1982|publisher=The Caxton Printers|location=Caldwell, Idaho|pages=61&ndash;68|isbn=0-87004-254-8}}</ref>  As up to 10,000 miners flocked to Whiskey Gulch and other sections of the canyon during the early stages of the [[gold rush|rush]], land values between Canyon City and John Day rose to about $500 per square yard ($600/m<sup>2</sup>).<ref name="Golden Years"/> Little of this estimated population influx is reflected in [[U.S. Census Bureau]] tallies for Canyon City, which have fluctuated between 250 and about 700 since 1870.<ref name="wwwcensusgov"/><ref name="Moffatt"/>
[[File:1885 Canyon City, Oregon.jpeg|left|thumb|Canyon City circa 1885]]

Estimates of the total value of Canyon Creek's gold varied. Geologist [[Waldemar Lindgren]] indicated that between $3&nbsp;million and $5&nbsp;million in gold was extracted for each of the first three years, 1862&ndash;64.<ref name="Golden Years"/> Rossiter Raymond, the U.S. Commissioner of Mining Statistics, reported an average of $1.1&nbsp;million a year between 1865 and 1870, afterward gradually tapering downwards.<ref name="Golden Years"/>  The figures given by Lindgren and Raymond were based on the fixed value of gold at $20.67 per ounce.  As such, these authoritative sources should be interpreted to estimate the annual gold production of Canyon Creek at 150,000 to 250,000 ounces in 1862, 1863 and 1864, then averaging 55,000 ounces each year between 1865 and 1870.  Earlier estimates that $16 million in gold was extracted from Canyon Creek were revised to $26 million<ref name="Golden Years" /> after the fixed value of gold increased to $35 per ounce in 1933.  These figures indicate that gross gold production from Canyon Creek for the 40 years between 1862 and 1902 was approximately 800,000 ounces.  In 2013, at $1,400 per ounce, that gold would be valued at $1.12 billion.  Gold production continued for another 40 years, until 1942, when the War Labor Board issued L-208, which prohibited gold mining and effectively killed the gold mining industry in the United States.

Many miners and others entered the area along a wagon road linking [[The Dalles, Oregon|The Dalles]] on the [[Columbia River]], with Canyon City. A few years later, this road was part of the template for what became known as [[The Dalles Military Road]].<ref name="Early history">{{cite web|title=Early History of The Dalles Military Road|url=http://www.historicthedalles.org/dalles_military_road.htm|publisher=Wasco County Historical Society|year=2012|access-date=August 2, 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141008194742/http://www.historicthedalles.org/dalles_military_road.htm|archive-date=2014-10-08|url-status=dead}}</ref>

The city was [[Surveying|platted]] in 1862 and was chosen as the county seat two years later, when Grant County was created from old [[Wasco County, Oregon|Wasco County]] and old [[Umatilla County, Oregon|Umatilla County]]. Canyon City was [[incorporation (municipal government)|incorporated]] in 1891, and voters elected C. W. Parrish as the first mayor.<ref name="Golden Years"/>