Sodaville, OR

Sodaville is a Linn County city named for mineral springs on a hillside above the town. Reuben Coyle discovered the soda springs in 1848; people later traveled long distances to drink or bathe in the water, and the settlement grew around the spring. Incorporated in 1880, Sodaville became a resort town with hotels, bathhouses, a post office, stores, churches, a newspaper, a sawmill, and the Mineral Springs College. The post office operated from 1871 to 1933, and the 2020 census counted 360 residents.

Mineral Spring Park is the clearest piece of that history. The state took jurisdiction over the spring in 1890, and the springhouse built in 1891 still marks the public space where the town’s story began. A former college dormitory was moved across the countryside and now serves as Crowfoot Grange Hall, another remnant of the resort era. Sodaville is a small Willamette Valley city whose streets follow an older promise: mineral water on the hill, visitors arriving for the springs, and a civic community that grew around the park.