Map of Brownsville city, Oregon

Brownsville is a city in Linn County, Oregon, United States. As of the 2020 census the population was 1,694. It is the setting for the fictional town of Castle Rock, Oregon, in the 1986 film Stand by Me.

Brownsville city overview:
Name:	Brownsville city
LSAD Code:	25
LSAD Description:	city (suffix)
State:	Oregon
County:	Linn County
Incorporated:	1876
Elevation:	265 ft (81 m)
Total Area:	1.36 sq mi (3.52 km²)
Land Area:	1.36 sq mi (3.52 km²)
Water Area:	0.00 sq mi (0.00 km²)
Total Population:	1,694
Population Density:	1,247.42/sq mi (481.71/km²)
ZIP code:	97327
Area code:	541
FIPS code:	4109050
GNISfeature ID:	1118140
Website:	www.ci.brownsville.or.us

Online Interactive Map

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Brownsville online map. Source: Basemap layers from Google Map, Open Street Map (OSM), Arcgisonline, Wmflabs. Boundary Data from Database of Global Administrative Areas.

Brownsville location map. Where is Brownsville city?

Brownsville location on the U.S. Map. Where is Brownsville city. — Brownsville location on the U.S. Map.

Brownsville location on the Oregon map. Where is Brownsville city. — Location of Brownsville in Oregon.

History

Establishment

Brownsville was originally known as “Calapooya” after the area’s original inhabitants, the Kalapuya Indians, or “Kirk’s Ferry”, after the ferry operated across the Calapooia River by early settlers Alexander and Sarah Kirk. When Linn County was created from the southern portion of Champoeg County on December 28, 1847, the Provisional Legislature named Calapooia as the county seat. The Spaulding School in Brownsville served as the original county courthouse. Brownsville was named in honor of Hugh L. Brown, who settled there in 1846 and opened the first store.

In 1851, the Territorial Legislature passed an act establishing Albany as the county seat. A special election in 1856 reaffirmed Albany as the county seat.

Stand by Me

In the mid-1980s, Brownsville assumed a modicum of international renown as the location for the film Stand by Me, directed by Rob Reiner. The film was shot in and around the community in June and July 1985, with theatrical release in August 1986. About 100 local residents were used as extras in the film, and the event was memorialized in 2007 with the first community celebration of Stand by Me Day on July 23 of that year. The date for Stand by Me Day was chosen by local resident and expert on the film Linda McCormick, who recalled in a 2016 interview that the day had been picked as one that did not interfere with other regional events and “wasn’t too close to the start of the school year.” About 2,000 visitors made the pilgrimage to Brownsville for the 2007 event. The celebration has been held annually since that year, with the exception of 2020, due to the Covid 19 pandemic. The 2016 iteration, honoring the 30th anniversary of the cinematic release, introduced the first “Ray Brower Memorial 5K Walk/Run,” named in honor of the dead body around which the film’s plot revolved.