Kinton was named for Peter Kindt, a pioneer who took up a donation land claim nearby.

Quoted from Ghosttowns.com "Twenty million years ago, lava flows from eastern Oregon snaked down the Columbia River and deposited a bed of basalt lava in the area known today as Washington County.

During the last ice age, the region was engulfed repeatedly by the raging Missoula floods, which deposited rich silt and topsoil.

Mr. Kindt’s Donation Land claim lay near the banks of the Tualatin River, and the town of Kinton was named after this early pioneer.

Kinton was fortunate to be situated near the Ferry that Peter Scholl built around 1848 across the Tualatin River.