Buena Vista was once the home of the Oregon Pottery Company, which shipped its wares all over Oregon via the Willamette River. One of the earliest settlements in Oregon, it once had a much greater population because of the pottery industry, as well as being an important hops-growing area. Buena Vista had saloons, a hotel, a school, a church, an I.O.O.F. hall and a store. The town later went into decline, especially because the railroad bypassed Buena Vista and instead was routed through Independence. Today, most of the principal buildings are gone and the community is considered a ghost town by authors of ghost town guidebooks, although local residents tend to disagree. Buena Vista formerly had a post office by the same name, which existed from 1866 to 1935. At the top of a steep hill to the north of town the Buena Vista cemetery includes graves dating back to the 1800s.
