[4][5] Stanwood was settled in the 1870s and received its first train depot on the Seattle and Montana Railroad (later absorbed into the Great Northern Railway) in October 1891.

[13] Vancouver's selection as host city of the 2010 Winter Olympics accelerated several long-term projects along the Amtrak Cascades corridor to improve train operations.

[14][15] Downtown boosters in Stanwood began pushing for a new train station in the early 2000s, hoping to piggyback off the siding expansion project, and appealed to state senator Mary Margaret Haugen for support.

[8] Construction on the station was scheduled to begin in 2007, but was delayed by a year due to design changes requested by BNSF and a disagreement between state and federal officials over the height of the platform.

[20][21] The station's construction was further delayed after the discovery of lead contamination at the platform site, which cost $100,000 to cleanup and caused the removal of a public restroom from design plans.

[2][17] The station is served by four daily trips on Amtrak Cascades, which travels south to Seattle via Everett and north to Vancouver, British Columbia, via Mount Vernon and Bellingham.