Donald
Donald
was formed from Donation Land Claims sold by R.L. Donald, an officer of the construction
company building the Oregon Electric Railway, to the Donald Town Lot and Land
Company in 1908. The original community was centered around agricultural
land growing hops, and in 1889 became home to the Hop Growers Fire Insurance
Co. The town grew, primarily on the hop crop, until the building of the Oregon
Electric Railroad which located a substation and depot in Donald as part of the
electric railway between Portland and Salem
The Donald post office was established April 13, 1910, and the town was home
to the Donald Brick and Tile Works from 1911 to 1923. However, completion of
the paved Highway 99E negatively effected railway ridership, and the last electric
railway ran through Donald in 1933. The Donald Farmers Co-op began the latest
phase of agriculture. It was acquired by Wilco in 1967 and the Wilco facility
in Donald has five grass seed cleaning lines processing 20 million pounds of
seed per year. It is the largest grass seed cleaning facility in the state.