Crime Scene & Biohazard Cleanup Near North Scio Scio, OR

Scio, pronounced SY-oh, is a city in Linn County, Oregon, incorporated as a city on October 24, 1866.

Scio was named by one of its original residents, William McKinney, for his former home of Scio, Ohio, which in turn took its name from the Greek island of Chios, whose Italian name is Scio.

McKinney and Henry L. Turner set up a flour mill at the new town, and Turner asked McKinney to come up with a name for the place.

Thomas Creek, which flows through Scio, was named for Frederick Thomas, who obtained a Donation Land Claim and settled on its banks in 1846, and the Scio post office was established on October 3, 1860, under postmaster Euphronius Wheeler.

Scio sits along Oregon Route 226 near the confluence of the north and south forks of the Santiam River, east of Jefferson and south of Stayton.

As of the 2020 census, Scio had a population of 956, up from 838 in 2010 and 695 in 2000.

The 2020 census counted 361 households in Scio, and the city's median age was 34.3 years, with 26.2 percent of residents under the age of 18.

Scio calls itself the "Covered Bridge Capital of the West," with five bridges on its Covered Bridge Tour out of eight in Linn County, including the Weddle, Shimanek, Gilkey, and Hannah bridges, most of them listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

The ZCBJ Hall, a lodge built beside Thomas Creek in 1922 by the large Czechoslovak population then living in the area, is now owned by the Linn County Lamb and Wool Fair and is also listed on the National Register.

Scio is served by the Scio School District, which operates Scio High School, by the Scio Fire District with three stations in the greater Scio area, and by law enforcement through a contract with the Linn County Sheriff's Office.