European colonial exploration of the Creston Valley began in 1808 when David Thompson traveled through the region, followed in later years by fur traders, prospectors, and government surveyors. European settlement began in the early 1880s, and two railways, the Canadian Pacific Railway and Great Northern Railroad, built tracks through the valley in the last years of the century. When the CPR purchased land from settler Fred Little for construction of the railway in 1897-8, he made it a condition of the sale that the town be named after his home town in Iowa