Warrenton, Oregon

Warrenton is a city in Clatsop County, Oregon, United States. The city is named for D.K. (Daniel Knight) Warren, an early settler. The population estimate 5,282 in 2016, according to the US Census Bureau.HistoryThe first settlement within the Warrenton city limits was Lexington, which was laid out in 1848, and served as the first county seat for Clatsop County. The name fell out of use, and this area became known as Skipanon, which is preserved in the name of the Skipanon River which flows through the town. A Lexington post office operated intermittently between 1850 and 1857; a Skipanon post office operated without a break from 1871 to 1903.Fort Stevens was built in the Warrenton area in 1863. Its remains are preserved as part of Lewis and Clark National and State Historical Parks.Warrenton was platted in 1889, and incorporated as a city in 1899. Built on tidal flats, it relied on a system of dikes built by Chinese laborers to keep the Columbia River from flooding the town.The pioneers, or first settlers, on the land covered by the town were Jeremiah Gerome Tuller, J. W. Wallace, D. E. Pease, Ninian A. Eberman and George Washington Coffinberry, who located here during the period from 1845 to the early 1850s. Very few improvements were made to the land, however, until the early 1870s, when D. K. Warren bought out some of the first settlers and, with the help of Chinese labor, reclaimed a large tract of the land by constructing a dike about in length, which was completed in 1878. Warren laid out the town in about 1891, and in the following year built the first schoolhouse, at a cost of $1,100, and gave it to the school district.