Strawberry Mountain near Prairie City is the highest point in Grant County at 9,028 feet above sea level. The lowest point is the John Day River at Kimberly, which is 1,820 feet above sea level.

A rare species of tree.

The oldest continuously published Oregon weekly.

A visit from Hollywood.

Grant County has quite a few claims to fame within its boundaries — and even its boundary is noteworthy!

Most of these tidbits are probably well known to Grant County residents, but folks in surrounding parts of the region might enjoy learning a thing or two from this list before their next visit to this historically rich and geographically diverse part of our state.

1. The only stand of Alaskan Yellow Cedar east of the Cascades is nestled in the Cedar Botanical Area in the Aldrich Mountain off Fields Creek Road southwest of Mt. Vernon.

2. The John Day River, whose headwaters are in the Strawberry Mountain Wilderness, is the longest free-flowing river west of the Rocky Mountains. Of the river’s 284 miles, 147 (from Service Creek to Tumwater Falls) are designated Wild and Scenic — it is the ninth longest in the United States.

3. Grant County shares boundaries with eight other counties, more than any other in Oregon — Morrow, Umatilla, Union, Harney, Malheur, Baker, Crook and Wheeler.

4. The oldest continuously published weekly newspaper in Oregon first rolled off the press in the small north county community of Long Creek in 1886 as the Long Creek Eagle. In 1898, the paper was renamed the Blue Mountain Eagle, and in 1900, moved to Canyon City. After the massive 1937 Canyon City fire, the Eagle office was moved to John Day, its present home.

5. Three locations in Grant County are named for early 1800s trapper and hunter John Day — Dayville, John Day and the John Day River. However, it seems that these frontiersmen never actually traveled to the area.

6. Grant County, named for then-General Ulysses S. Grant, is one of five Oregon counties named for presidents — Jackson, Polk, Washington and Lincoln are the others. (Jefferson County was named for Mt. Jefferson.)

7. Elevation in Grant County ranges from 9,038 feet — Strawberry Mountain, about 10 miles south of Prairie City — to 1,820 feet — the John Day River at Kimberly at the western edge of the county.

8. In 1868, just two years after gold was discovered on nearby Whiskey Gulch, Canyon City claimed, if only briefly, to have the largest population of any community in Oregon.

9. Prairie City is the only Grant County community that originated in another location. In 1862, pioneers established Dixie, a mining camp up Dixie Creek, but soon realized a more desirable spot for a town would be three miles to the south, the site of present-day Prairie City.

10. Grant County was the sole location for a major, full-length, feature movie — Disney’s “Napoleon and Samantha.” The 1972 family adventure starred Michael Douglas, Johnny Whitaker, Jodie Foster, Will Geer and Ellen Corby. Locations included Canyon City, John Day, Mt. Vernon and the Strawberry Mountain Wilderness.