Brooks was a station on the Southern Pacific Railroad main line (now the Union Pacific) through the Willamette Valley. The station was named for early settler Linus Brooks, who came to Oregon from Illinois in 1850. He was born in Ohio in 1805. The Brooks post office was established in 1871, about the time the railroad reached the community. Brooks was platted with 30 blocks in 1878 and had 135 residents at that time. The community did not grow appreciably and it never incorporated.
Founding dates: Wikidata, Wikipedia, the U.S. post office records of Blevins & Helbock (CC0) and the Census. Homes by year built: Census ACS 2020–24. National Register of Historic Places: National Park Service (list of May 22, 2026). Old photos, postcards and papers: Wikimedia Commons, the Library of Congress and other public archives, credited on each item’s page. Maps: U.S. Geological Survey historical topographic maps (via Esri) and Sanborn fire-insurance maps (Library of Congress). History text and census tables: Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0). Places that used to be: USGS Geographic Names Information System (2021). How TownRatings grades history →
From Wikimedia Commons (2), Wikipedia and the USGS Geographic Names Information System. Archive images are copied here with their credits and licenses, shown on each photo’s page. Refreshed monthly.
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