Scotts Mills, OR

Scotts Mills is a Marion County city along Butte Creek near the Clackamas County line. The 2020 census counted 419 residents. Scotts Mills Elementary is part of Silver Falls School District, and city hall, the fire hall, the historical society, and the small city park sit close to the older town center. Oregon 213 is about two miles north near Marquam, while Crooked Finger Road and the creek roads lead into the surrounding foothills. The creek, school, and a few civic buildings still make the town easy to read on the ground.

Thomas McKay built a sawmill on Butte Creek in 1847, followed by a gristmill. Robert Hall Scott and his brother Thomas acquired the mill property in 1866, and the settlement took the Scotts Mills name. A post office arrived in 1887, a water-powered dynamo supplied electricity in 1908, and the city received its charter in 1916. The former Christian Church now houses the Scotts Mills Area Historical Society, which opens its museum seasonally. Scotts Mills is a small creek-and-foothill town where school, volunteer work, old mills, and the road toward Silverton still share the same short stretch of valley.