Gaston, OR

Gaston is a Washington County city on Oregon Route 47, between Forest Grove and Yamhill, with the Tualatin River along its edge. The city takes its name from railroad executive Joseph Gaston, whose railway-era plans helped shape the town; after settling nearby, he built a station and warehouse and spent years trying to drain Wapato Lake for farmland. That work sits on land with Tualatin and other Indigenous history, including the 1855 treaty that removed Native communities to the Grand Ronde Reservation. Gaston is an Oregon river-and-rail town whose map still runs through lakebed, highway, and valley.