Afton is the primary settlement in Star Valley. An early resident, who was a native of Scotland, is credited with naming the town - having derived his inspiration from the creek. After observing the turbulent flowing waters, he is said to have remarked that the poet Burns could not have meant this tumbling stream when he wrote "Flow gently, Sweet Afton."

In 1896 Mormon immigrants reportedly surveyed the townsite using only the North Star, the noon sun, a carpenter's square, a rope and an almanac. The notorious McCarthy gang holed up here in the 1880s.

Christen Industries in Afton manufactures a variety of aircraft, including the Pitts Specials, considered the finest aerobatic planes made.