It is named for Mr. Day whose hogan was next to the spring and who once served as an Army scout. In 1928, Bureau of Indian Affairs Superintendent Walker ordered the development of the spring. While digging, the construction crew found fossils of extinct mammals. The University of Pennsylvania and the American Museum of Natural History identified the findings. Among the skeletons recovered were camelops similar to the South American llama, bison larger than those of present day, equus , a type of horse that became extinct in North America during the Ice Age, and elephas columbi , a mammoth that was about the same size as an African elephant.
Rain water falls on the porous sandstone and seeps into the underlying clay layers.
Tuba City is especially blessed because it is south of the Kaibito Plateau, a large mass of sandstone that collects water and carries it in its natural underground clay layers to Tuba City where it bubbles up as cool, naturally pure drinking water. This famous landmark was first opened in 1870 by Charles Algert who hired store clerk Samual Preston to run the post for him. Preston later became a partner with the Babbitt Brothers who bought out Algert in 1902. Preston built the big, beautiful, hogan-shaped portion of the post after becoming a partner. It's constructed of locally-quarried blue limestone, with logs hauled in from the San Francisco Peaks near Flagstaff.