Lafayette, Oregon
city in Oregon, USA
Lafayette is a city in Yamhill County, Oregon, United States on the Yamhill River and Oregon Route 99W. It was founded in 1846 and incorporated in 1878. The population was 4,423 at the 2020 census.
History
Lafayette was founded in 1846 by Joel Perkins, an American pioneer and entrepreneur, who had previously lived in Lafayette, Indiana and named the new settlement similarly after Marquis de Lafayette, a general involved in the American Revolutionary War.
The post office was established in 1851, and the city was incorporated by the Oregon Legislative Assembly on October 17, 1878.
Lafayette was the county seat of Yamhill County from its founding until 1889, when county residents voted to move the county seat to McMinnville.
Geography
According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of 0.90 square miles (2.33 km2), all of it land.
It is located on State Highway 99W between McMinnville and Dundee.
Landmarks
Lock and dam
In 1900, the Yamhill River lock and dam was completed about 1.5 miles (2.4 km) downriver from Lafayette, Oregon. The lock was decommissioned in 1954. The dam was deliberately destroyed in 1963 to allow better passage for salmon on the river.
The public source identifies “Lafayette, Oregon” as city in Oregon, USA. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Lafayette, Oregon and city.
Why this record matters
A short description can identify a subject without explaining its stakes. For “Lafayette, Oregon”, the useful work is to connect “city in Oregon, USA” to the records capable of establishing context and consequence.
Maps, plans, fabric surveys and administrative records can establish how the site’s name, extent and function changed over time. The source revision retrieved here is dated Apr 20, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q1012371. VIAF identifies the subject as 126987155. The Library of Congress control number is no98101341. Authority coordinates are 45.245, -123.113. 3 of 5 selected statements include explicit references; 1 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1846, 1878, 2020 and 1851.
A single description cannot reconcile every naming convention, rebuilding phase or administrative transfer associated with a place. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
How to read it
Treat names, boundaries and functions as historically changeable. Maps, plans, inventories and administrative records can clarify what the place meant at different dates.
- Historic place names
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Contemporary maps, plans, listed-building records, estate papers and the responsible local or national archive.
Three-step research path
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Questions for further research
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This entry incorporates text from “Lafayette, Oregon” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.