The City of Wasco is a growing and vibrant community located in the heart of the most diversified agricultural region in the world. Wasco nestles cozily among blooming rose fields, almond and pistachio orchards, sugar beets, grapes, many varieties of fruits and vegetables, and white cotton fields. Wasco is universally known as the Rose Capital of the Nation.

The history of Wasco dates back to 1897, when the Santa Fe Railroad laid tracks through the area. During the next several years, over 300 families relocated to the area primarily through arrangements made by Marshall V. Hartranft. Hartranft secured nine 640 acre sections from the Kern County Land Company for resale to those settlers, and he is therefore credited with inception of the new community. Hartranft's effort in bringing settlers to Wasco was titled the "Fourth Home Extension Colony".

The town of Wasco was originally named "Dewey" and then "Deweyville". When William Bonham, a settler from Wasco County in Oregon, determined that there was a town already named "Deweyville" he proposed the area be renamed "Wasco", and in 1900, the Post Office recorded the town name of Wasco.