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History · Gates

Gates’ post office opened in 1892

Most of Gates was built recently: 3% of its homes predate 1940 and the median home dates from 1983.

1892first post office
0on the National Register
3%homes built before 1940
1famous people
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Photo: Finetooth · CC BY-SA 3.0
Quick answers

How Gates began

When was Gates founded?

1892

The Gates post office opened in 1892, the earliest record of the town by name. Wikidata gives 1950. Two smaller post offices, Henness (1882) and Rock Creek (1883), opened inside today’s city and later closed.

2020 census: 548134 years
Founding year: the first Gates post office (Blevins & Helbock, CC0). Wikidata: 1950.The full story ↓

What stands out about Gates’ past

Read from the archive, the National Register and the record. The page puts what stands out first.

A history waiting to be writtenNo old photos of Gates are in the public archives yet. The rest are in attics and albums.Lost villages2 post offices opened and closed inside today’s Gates.
★ What stands out · Help out

Start Gates’s collection

The first neighbors to add old photos shape how Gates’s history is told.

Decades since 1900 with photos
00s10s20s30s40s50s60s70s80s90s
0 of 10 decades. The empty ones are waiting for someone’s album.
Share a family photoSign in to add one+10
Places that used to be

Lost post offices and places now gone

Gates had its own post office from 1892 to 1963. Two other post offices opened and closed inside today’s town.

Henness
1882–1883
Rock Creek
1883–1892
Gates
1892–1963
18801950today
Gone or out of use
Cascade Operating CompanylocaleHomerlocaleRock Creek Post Officepost office

US Post Offices dataset (Blevins & Helbock, CC0). Places and cemeteries from the USGS Geographic Names Information System (2021).

The story

How Gates came to be

From Wikipedia’s history of Gates.

Read it all →

Gates' first post office was established in 1882 on the south side of the North Santiam River as Henness, named for the first postmaster, Jane Henness. The post office later moved to the north side of the river as Gatesville, but the post office was established with the name Gates on February 12, 1892. The name honored one of the oldest settlers in the area, Mary Gates. The city was incorporated in 1950.

Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.

Timeline

Gates, 1882 to 1963

Woven from the archive, old maps, post office records, the National Register and the people born here.

  1. 19th century
  2. 1882Post officeThe Henness post office opens
  3. 1883Post officeThe Henness post office closes
  4. 1883Post officeThe Rock Creek post office opens
  5. 1892Born hereGladys Lehman is born here
  6. 1892Post officeThe Rock Creek post office closes
  7. 1892Post officeThe Gates post office opens
  8. 20th century
  9. 1963Post officeThe Gates post office closes
By decade

Gates, decade by decade

Today6 recent
2017-08-12 Gates 320172017-08-12 Gates 32017-08-12 Gates 220172017-08-12 Gates 22017-08-12 Gates 120172017-08-12 Gates 1Gates Oregon elementary school2009Gates Oregon elementary schoolCATARACT E2008CATARACT EORMap-doton-Gates2004ORMap-doton-Gates

Questions about Gates’ history

What year was Gates founded?

The Gates post office opened in 1892, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records). Wikidata gives 1950.

Memory lane

What the archives can’t tell you, neighbors can.

Town Square →
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Sources

Where this page comes from

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 (6), Wikipedia, Wikidata and Wikipedia for famous people, the US Post Offices dataset (Blevins & Helbock) 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.