# Danner, Oregon

Danner is an unincorporated community located in Malheur County, Oregon, (Western United States). The community lies along the Danner Road off U.S. Route 95 west of the Jordan Valley. Jordan Creek, a tributary of the Owyhee River (leading eventually to the Snake and Columbia Rivers) flows by Danner.

## History

The old Idaho-Oregon-Nevada highway ran through Danner, following the route of the old Skinner Toll Road which opened the area for settlement in 1863, during the era of the American Civil War (1861–1865), back east.
Danner is also the location of the burial site of Jean Baptiste Charbonneau (a.k.a. "Pompey" or "Little Pomp", 1805–1866)'s resting place. He was the youngest member of the famous Lewis and Clark Expedition of 1804–1806 as the infant son of their Lemhi Shoshone Native American woman guide Sacagawea (c.1788–1812), who carried him as a baby / toddler strapped to her back in a papoose as she guided the white Americans William Clark (1770–1838) and Meriwether Lewis (1774–1809), and their Corps of Discovery on orders from third President Thomas Jefferson (1743–1826, served 1801–1809), charting the newly-acquired immense tract of unexplored lands west of the Mississippi River from the First French Empire (France) of their new Emperor Napoleon I of the enormous tract of the Louisiana Purchase of 1803. After traveling northwest upstream on the Missouri River, she guided them through the wilderness passes in the Rocky Mountains chain going westward eventually through the uncharted Pacific Northwest region, along the Snake and Columbia Rivers to the West Coast and the Pacific Ocean, then eventually returning back east. Charbonneau died here on May 16, 1866 at the age of 61 years old after developing pneumonia while passing through the area, crossing the Owyhee River. His burial site (which coincidentally also happens to lie a short distance from the trans-continental route of Lewis and Clark's trek west, 61 years before), was located decades later in the 20th century, was marked and fenced off through the efforts of local Danner residents Kirt and Johanna Skinner, and it was entered into the National Register of Historic Places (lists maintained by the National Park Service of the United States Department of the Interior), on March 14, 1973. Mixed ancestry Lemhi Shoshone-French Charbonneau's resting place lies among five other resting places near the Inskip Station, a fortified stone ranch house that operated as a stagecoach line station in the 1860s. Inskip's property was later known as the Ruby Ranch. A plaque marks the ruins / remains of the Inskip Station within sight of the resting place of Charbonneau.
A town had been platted and promoted as Ruby Townsite by Harley J. Hooker, who sold land for $1.25 per acre when the Jordan Valley Irrigation District began constructing an irrigation dam and canal system near Danner around 1910. The proposed agricultural town never grew as anticipated, however, since the high desert's harsh climate did not allow farmers to produce a wide enough range of crops. Hooker then built a single story office building of lava rock in Danner about 1915. After his death in 1919, it was used as the Danner community hall for a number of years. It became unsafe and was unfortunately demolished a few years ago.
The name of the community comes from John H. Danner, an early area settler. The old United States Post Office Department (today's United States Postal Service after 1970) denied an application to call the local post office as Ruby for the nearby Ruby Ranch, but in 1920 the post office site name ofDanner was approved. The post office operated until 1942.
By the time of the 1930s and the Great Depression, Danner had a general store run by Jesse Anderson, a Danish immigrant. The building he constructed is still standing today, a half-mile south of the site of old stagecoach Inskip Station.

## Climate

According to the Köppen Climate Classification system, Danner has a semi-arid climate, abbreviated "BSk" on climate maps.
Climate data for Danner, Oregon, 1981–2010 normals, extremes 1929–2017 :
| Month | Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec | Year |
| Record high °F (°C) | 62 (17) | 69 (21) | 78 (26) | 87 (31) | 99 (37) | 106 (41) | 109 (43) | 105 (41) | 104 (40) | 93 (34) | 86 (30) | 67 (19) | 109 (43) |
| Mean maximum °F (°C) | 50.7 (10.4) | 57.3 (14.1) | 66.8 (19.3) | 77.4 (25.2) | 85.6 (29.8) | 92.6 (33.7) | 98.8 (37.1) | 96.8 (36.0) | 91.0 (32.8) | 80.3 (26.8) | 64.4 (18.0) | 52.1 (11.2) | 99.3 (37.4) |
| Mean daily maximum °F (°C) | 37.4 (3.0) | 43.1 (6.2) | 51.3 (10.7) | 58.7 (14.8) | 67.0 (19.4) | 75.5 (24.2) | 86.6 (30.3) | 85.5 (29.7) | 75.8 (24.3) | 62.6 (17.0) | 46.7 (8.2) | 37.1 (2.8) | 60.6 (15.9) |
| Daily mean °F (°C) | 27.4 (−2.6) | 31.5 (−0.3) | 38.9 (3.8) | 44.3 (6.8) | 52.3 (11.3) | 59.7 (15.4) | 67.7 (19.8) | 66.1 (18.9) | 57.0 (13.9) | 45.8 (7.7) | 34.8 (1.6) | 27.0 (−2.8) | 46.0 (7.8) |
| Mean daily minimum °F (°C) | 17.3 (−8.2) | 19.8 (−6.8) | 26.5 (−3.1) | 29.9 (−1.2) | 37.6 (3.1) | 43.9 (6.6) | 48.9 (9.4) | 46.6 (8.1) | 38.2 (3.4) | 28.9 (−1.7) | 23.0 (−5.0) | 17.0 (−8.3) | 31.5 (−0.3) |
| Mean minimum °F (°C) | −3.3 (−19.6) | 1.9 (−16.7) | 13.3 (−10.4) | 16.3 (−8.7) | 22.4 (−5.3) | 31.4 (−0.3) | 38.1 (3.4) | 36.3 (2.4) | 25.2 (−3.8) | 13.2 (−10.4) | 4.7 (−15.2) | −2.8 (−19.3) | −10.4 (−23.6) |
| Record low °F (°C) | −52 (−47) | −46 (−43) | −12 (−24) | 5 (−15) | 11 (−12) | 18 (−8) | 22 (−6) | 20 (−7) | 10 (−12) | −4 (−20) | −26 (−32) | −34 (−37) | −52 (−47) |
| Average precipitation inches (mm) | 1.15 (29) | 0.79 (20) | 1.06 (27) | 1.12 (28) | 1.41 (36) | 0.96 (24) | 0.63 (16) | 0.30 (7.6) | 0.51 (13) | 0.67 (17) | 1.14 (29) | 1.47 (37) | 10.90 (277) |
| Source 1: NOAA ||||||||||||||
| Source 2: National Weather Service ||||||||||||||