Waconda is a historic

unincorporated community An unincorporated area is a region that is not governed by a local municipal corporation. Widespread unincorporated communities and areas are a distinguishing feature of the United States and Canada. Most other countries of the world either have ...

Marion County, Oregon Marion County is one of the 36 counties in the U.S. state of Oregon. The population was 345,920 at the 2020 census, making it the fifth-most populous county in Oregon. The county seat is Salem, which is also the state capital of Oregon. The ...

, United States, near the crossroads of River Road Rd NE and Waconda Road NE on the

French Prairie French Prairie is located in Marion County, Oregon, United States, in the Willamette Valley between the Willamette River and the Pudding River, north of Salem. It was named for some of the earliest settlers of that part of the Oregon Country, Fr ...

. Waconda was once a station on the

Oregon Electric Railway The Oregon Electric Railway (OE) was an interurban railroad line in the U.S. state of Oregon that linked Portland to Eugene. Service from Portland to Salem began in January 1908. The Spokane, Portland and Seattle Railway purchased the system in ...

and it formerly had a post office by the same name. The station was named when the railroad was built through the area in 1907, and the post office was established in 1912. There was previously a community called Waconda about a mile south of Gervais established in 1870 on the former line of the

Oregon & California Railroad The Oregon and California Railroad was formed from the Oregon Central Railroad when it was the first to operate a stretch south of Portland, Oregon, Portland in 1869. This qualified the railroad for land grants in California, whereupon the name ...

(now owned by

Union Pacific The Union Pacific Railroad , legally Union Pacific Railroad Company and often called simply Union Pacific, is a freight-hauling railroad that operates 8,300 locomotives over routes in 23 U.S. states west of Chicago and New Orleans. Union Paci ...

). The name may come from the Great Plains Native American word " Wakonda" (something consecrated). Waconda was one of a series of OE stations with Native American names; one station to the south was named for Chinookan leader

Comcomly Comcomly (or Concomly) (1765 – 1830) was a Native American leader of the Lower Chinook, a group of Chinookan peoples indigenous to the Pacific Northwest, who inhabited the area near Ilwaco, Washington. Concomly spoke Lower Chinook and was kn ...

and the next one to the north was named for

Kalapuya The Kalapuya are a Native Americans in the United States, Native American ethnic group, people, which had eight independent groups speaking three mutually intelligible dialects. The Kalapuya tribes' traditional homelands were the Willamette Va ...

n "Chief" Quinaby. In 1915, Waconda had a store and a population of 40. An

American Foursquare The American Foursquare or American Four Square is an American house style popular from the mid-1890s to the late 1930s. A reaction to the ornate and mass-produced elements of the Victorian architecture, Victorian and other Revival styles popul ...

house near the ruins of the OE station once served as the post office and is still standing. Agriculture in the area includes the growing of

hops Hops are the flowers (also called seed cones or strobiles) of the hop plant ''Humulus lupulus'', a member of the Cannabaceae family of flowering plants. They are used primarily as a bittering, flavouring, and stability agent in beer, to whi ...

, berries, fruit, and the production dairy products.

References

External links

Historic images of Waconda
from Salem Public Library
1963 Aerial photo of Waconda
from the

University of Oregon The University of Oregon (UO, U of O or Oregon) is a public research university in Eugene, Oregon. Founded in 1876, the institution is well known for its strong ties to the sports apparel and marketing firm Nike, Inc, and its co-founder, billion ...

digital archives Oregon Electric Railway Unincorporated communities in Marion County, Oregon Unincorporated communities in Oregon {{MarionCountyOR-geo-stub

Further reading

References

External links