Stella, is located on the Washington side of the Columbia River at River Mile (RM) 56.5, at the mouth of Germany Creek. The Stella townsite was originally part of a 320-acre Donation Land Claim filed by John Guisendorfer in the early 1850s. Soon after it was purchased by Henry Lawson who established a river landing at the site.

A small community, mostly of German immigrants, sprang up during the 1870s, which provided cordwood for the steamboats and assembled log-rafts to float logs to the Pacific and the Portland market. The Stella Blacksmith Shop was built in 1907 by B.F. Brock, a prominent area lumberman. The shop served the community, it survived a fire in 1921, and when the economy of the lumber industry changed the shop changed too. In the declining years the shop became an automobile repair shop.

In 1977 the shop was leased to the Stella Historical Society and today it is an area Museum. In 1985 the structure was listed on the National Register of Historic Places (Building - #85003204).