Hinkle was a railway junction where a cutoff to Boardman rejoined the main line of the Oregon Railway & Navigation Company that ran from Umatilla to Huntington.[2] When the cutoff was built in 1915, a station was needed at the junction with the main line, and Joseph T. Hinkle, a prominent local attorney, newspaper editor and politician, sold the railroad a small amount of land for that purpose.[2][3] The station was named in his honor.[2] According to the compilers of Oregon Geographic Names, the community of Hinkle "languished in obscurity for a third of a century", until 1951, when the completion of the McNary Dam flooded the former route of the UP's line.[2] When the tracks were relocated, UP built a major yard at the junction, expanding it beginning in 1976.[2]
From 1977 until 1997, Hinkle was a passenger stop on Amtrak's Pioneer route; the station code was HIK.[4][5] Hinkle was previously a stop on the UP's City of Portland route, with connections to Chicago.[6][7] The station code used by train telegraphers and trainmen was UK.
