Native Americans inhabited the site of Vinton before the arrival of the Spaniards, who made it a stopping place along the Camino Real, the road from El Paso to Santa Fe, which passed along the east bank of the Rio Grande through what is now Vinton.

In Spanish and Mexican colonial times, it was known as La Salinera, from the salt cedars which grew there in abundance; when the area passed to the United States after the US-Mexican War, this water stop became known as Cottonwood, and was located in the northern part of Vinton along the river, 22 miles from El Paso.

In 1857, it was used by the San Antonio-San Diego Mail Line and from 1858 to 1861 by the Butterfield Overland Mail, that had a stage station called Cottonwood Station, located 22 miles from El Paso and 25 miles from Fort Fillmore up river in New Mexico.

A post office was opened there in 1892, and the town grew slowly in the next 100 years, reaching 605 in 1990, then tripling in population in the following decade to 1892 in the 2000 census.

The incorporation of Vinton as Village of Industry on August 8, 1961 [8] originated with Border Steel Corporation, which opened a mill in town that year; now owned by Arcelor Mittal, it is still in operation.

[7][9] According to the United States Census Bureau, the village has a total area of 2.4 square miles (6.2 km2), all land.