[2] When the cutoff was built in 1915, a station was needed at the junction with the main line, and Joseph T. Hinkle, a prominent local attorney, newspaper editor and politician, sold the railroad a small amount of land for that purpose.

[2] According to the compilers of Oregon Geographic Names, the community of Hinkle "languished in obscurity for a third of a century", until 1951, when the completion of the McNary Dam flooded the former route of the UP's line.

[2] When the tracks were relocated, UP built a major yard at the junction, expanding it beginning in 1976.

[2] From 1977 until 1997, Hinkle was a passenger stop on Amtrak's Pioneer route; the station code was HIK.

[4][5] Hinkle was previously a stop on the UP's City of Portland route, with connections to Chicago.