The community was named for E. Henry Wemme, a Portland businessman who bought a Locomobile in 1899, the first automobile in Oregon.[2] He also bought the right-of-way to Barlow Road in 1912, bequeathing it to the public after his death two years later.
West Coast Airlines Flight 956
West Coast Airlines Flight 956 crashed 58 years ago in 1966, approximately 5.5 miles (9 km) south of Wemme. It occurred on Saturday night, October 1, with eighteen fatalities and no survivors, and marked the first loss of a Douglas DC-9 aircraft.[3][4][5][6][7][8]