From Kalapuya Homeland to College Town

This continuing article series explores the rich history woven through cities across Oregon, highlighting the people, places, and stories that shaped each city. From well-known landmarks to forgotten local lore, each article uncovers a new piece of the past. Stay tuned for more chapters in Oregon’s unfolding story.

Just past Hillsboro, on the western edge of the Portland Metro area, is Forest Grove, a compact small town of just over 26,000 people, with a downtown of stately brick buildings and Oregon’s first chartered university. The history of this early pioneer town is a story defined by indigenous stewardship, missionary zeal, railroads, condensed milk, and the construction of Highway 26.

Long before the name “Forest Grove” appeared on any map, the land it resides upon was home to the Atfalati band of the indigenous Kalapuya people. Their traditional homeland stretched across the Tualatin Plains — a part of the larger Willamette Valley territory of the Kalapuya tribes. Employing careful, seasonal burning, they maintained open prairies rich in camas, wapato, and game.

By the 1830s and 1840s, however, disease epidemics brought by Euro-American contact devastated Kalapuya communities, and the 1850s saw the surviving Atfalati people forced by federal treaties onto the Grand Ronde Reservation. This relocation of the Atfalati facilitated American settlement in what is now Washington County.

One of the first settler families to make a permanent home on the Tualatin Plains were Alvin T. and Abigail Smith, missionaries who arrived in 1841. Their small community was initially known as West Tualatin Plain. Alvin Smith became the first postmaster on February 1, 1850, and his log cabin doubled as the post office.

Education quickly became the town’s defining feature. In 1846, a 66-year-old widow named Tabitha Moffatt Brown made the arduous trip to Oregon over the Applegate Trail. Nearly destitute upon arrival, she joined with the Rev. Harvey Clark and his wife Emeline to care for children who had been orphaned along the trail. By 1848, they were using a log meetinghouse on the Tualatin Plains as a school, referred to as the “Orphan Asylum.”

In 1849, this early school was granted a charter by the Oregon Territorial Legislature and renamed Tualatin Academy — the first act of the new territorial government and a milestone in the region’s educational history. 

The name “Forest Grove” emerged two years later. On January 10, 1851, the trustees of Tualatin Academy met to choose a formal name for the growing settlement. J. Quinn Thornton proposed “Forest Grove,” inspired by a stand of oak trees near the academy — groves that, in modified form, still grace the modern Pacific University campus.

Five years later, in 1854, a new charter created a dual institution, “Tualatin Academy and Pacific University,” where college-level classes were initiated. Today, Pacific University proudly describes itself as Oregon’s first chartered university and the oldest chartered university in the American West, a status confirmed in both institutional records and archival sources. 

Forest Grove was formally platted in 1850, and as farms spread across the plains, the community gained stores, churches, and small industries. In 1872, Forest Grove was officially incorporated, becoming the first incorporated city in Washington County.

Transportation transformed Forest Grove’s fortunes. In 1870, the Willamette Valley Railroad — later part of a larger “Westside” line — reached the area. Town leaders declined to subsidize a depot in the city center, so the station was built about a mile south. There, Oregon’s largest milk condensery opened in 1902, originally called the Oregon Condensed Milk Company. Later, in 1915 the Pacific Coast Condensed Milk Company of Kent, WA, purchased it and began marketing condensed milk under the name Carnation. The community around the plant, once known as South Forest Grove, was later renamed Carnation after the famous milk brand. 

By 1900, Washington County was one of Oregon’s major agricultural hubs. Much of that activity centered around Forest Grove and neighboring Hillsboro. Local farms produced grain, hay, dairy products, and fruit from thriving orchards, which helped fuel the area's economic growth.

The postwar era brought further transformation. Many World War II Veterans returning on the G.I. Bill chose to attend Pacific University, boosting enrollment and expanding the college’s academic footprint. At the same time, new highways increased people’s mobility. The Sunset Highway — U.S. Route 26 — was constructed between 1933 and 1949, and connected Portland with the Oregon Coast. As that route matured into a major commuter corridor through Washington County, Forest Grove gradually evolved from a standalone farm town into a small city with close ties to Portland’s economy.

Forest Grove has also done a remarkable job preserving its historic buildings and local landmarks. Pacific University’s Old College Hall, built in 1850, is one of the oldest academic buildings in Oregon, and currently serves as a small museum. Nearby, the 1906 Carnegie Library (now the city’s community auditorium) remains a testament to early civic investment in education. Just outside downtown, the Alvin T. Smith House remains one of the region’s rare surviving 1850s pioneer structures, and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

Outdoor enthusiasts are drawn to nearby Henry Hagg Lake, a major regional destination for fishing, hiking, and boating, while the Tualatin Valley Scenic Bikeway, the Fernhill Wetlands, and numerous local parks connect residents and visitors to a natural environment that has defined the area for centuries. The nearby parks and wetlands, including restored areas such as Wapato Lake, recall the older ecology of the Tualatin Plains that sustained the Atfalati people for generations.

Recent additions to the landscape include vineyards and wineries, with SakéOne — just south of town — earning a reputation as one of the country’s finest craft sake producers, a modern echo of the region’s agricultural heritage.

According to the 2020 census, Forest Grove currently has a population of 26,225 people. Pacific University remains the community’s heart, drawing students, cultural events, and jobs, while downtown sports century-old storefronts housing coffee shops, breweries, restaurants, and a variety of shops. 

Walking through Forest Grove today, you can read its history in layers: in the white oaks that inspired its name, in the brick halls of Pacific University, in the remnants of rail lines and old industrial sites, and in the verdant fields that still frame the town. From Kalapuya homeland to missionary outpost, railroad town, and college city, Forest Grove’s story reminds us that even small communities carry a history as rich and consequential as any big city on the map.