Colton is an

unincorporated community An unincorporated area is a parcel of land that is not governed by a local general-purpose municipal corporation. (At p. 178.) They may be governed or serviced by an encompassing unit (such as a county) or another branch of the state (such as th ...

located in

Clackamas County Clackamas County ( ) is one of the 36 counties in the U.S. state of Oregon. As of the 2020 census, the population was 421,401, making it Oregon's third-most populous county. Its county seat is Oregon City. The county was named after the na ...

Oregon Oregon ( , ) is a U.S. state, state in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States. It is a part of the Western U.S., with the Columbia River delineating much of Oregon's northern boundary with Washington (state), Washington, while t ...

, United States, on

Oregon Route 211 Oregon Route 211 is a state highway which runs through part of the northeastern portion of Oregon's Willamette Valley. Its northeastern terminus is its intersection with U.S. Route 26 in Sandy, a small town on the outskirts of the Portland ...

. Colton is located between the cities of Estacada and Molalla. Colton was named in about 1892 by two residents, Joshua Gorbett and a man named Cole, who each wanted to name the community after the other. The

Post Office Department The United States Post Office Department (USPOD; also known as the Post Office or U.S. Mail) was the predecessor of the United States Postal Service, established in 1792. From 1872 to 1971, it was officially in the form of a Cabinet departme ...

thought "Gorbett" would be confused with Corbett, so the community was named "Colton" instead. The Colton post office was established the same year. Camp Colton, Colton Luthern Church, Colton Market, Bob & Clyde’s, Colton Cafe, Fir Valley, and our volunteer Colton Fire Station are everlasting Colton landmarks. Colton areas include the communities/neighborhoods of: Old Colton, Elwood, Cedardale, Highland, Clarks, Dickey Prairie, and Fernwood. These areas are primarily where original schools, granges or stores were once located. Some of the original structures remain. In Elwood the school house is now the community center and the old Church is still open for business, along with the Elwoid cemetery.

Geography

Colton is located on Milk Creek, a tributary of the

Molalla River The Molalla River is a tributary of the Willamette River in the northwestern part of Oregon in the United States. Flowing northwest from the Cascade Range through Table Rock Wilderness, it passes the city of Molalla before entering the larger ...

, in a broad (narrow) canyon eroded in a plateau of volcanic

basalt Basalt (; ) is an aphanite, aphanitic (fine-grained) extrusive igneous rock formed from the rapid cooling of low-viscosity lava rich in magnesium and iron (mafic lava) exposed at or very near the planetary surface, surface of a terrestrial ...

s and ash of the nearby

Western Cascades The Western Cascades or Old Cascades are a sub-province of the Cascade Range in the U.S. state of Oregon, between the Willamette Valley and the High Cascades. The Western Cascades contain many extinct shield volcanoes, cinder cones and lava flows ...

. The area is still primarily Douglas fir timber lands. Surrounded by farms, including Christmas trees, cattle and goats, horticulture.

Education

Primary and secondary students in Colton are served by the Colton School District, which includes Colton Elementary School, Colton Middle School, Colton High School.

Notable people

* Stella Nickell, convicted murderer, was born in Colton. Nickell poisoned her husband Bruce, and also a complete stranger, Sue Snow, and is currently serving her 90 year concurrent sentences in a federal prison in Hazelton, West Virginia.

References

{{authority control 1892 establishments in Oregon Populated places established in 1892 Portland metropolitan area Swedish-American culture in Oregon Unincorporated communities in Clackamas County, Oregon Unincorporated communities in Oregon