Native Maori tradition says the Maori chief Tokoroa, of Ngati Kahupungapunga, met his death at the hands of a rival tribe, Ngati Raukawa, who besieged his fortress nearby. An early European surveyor called the area Tokoroa in his honor. Early (1860s) maps of the area mention the "Tokoroa Plains." Stage coaches from Auckland crossed the plains en route to Lake Taupo, about 50 miles to the south.
Sawmills arrived in the early 1900s, before pioneers settled the land. The resulting light railways, which brought logs to sawmills north and south of Tokoroa, paved the way for farming development. Farmers struggled, because of the lack of cobalt in the volcanic pumice-laden soil. The deficiency produced "bush sickness" in cattle and developers preferred to plant exotic pine forests instead of cattle farming. From 1935, top-dressing the land with cobaltized superphosphate boosted the dairy industry, but not before pine forests covered large tracts of the area around present-day Tokoroa.
The town of Tokoroa burst onto the map with New Zealand Forest Products' (NZFP) plan to build a major pulp and paper mill 5 miles to the south, at Kinleith, with work starting in 1950.Tokoroa began life about 1948, as the service town for construction workers and with a population of 1,100. When the plant opened in 1953, it remained the dormitory town. Tokoroa housed forest felling workers as well as factory employers and families from an estimated 25 ethnic groups. Building boomed, with NZFP involved in the subdivisions, as well as mill construction.
The population grew to 18,000 in the 1980s. Increased mechanization at the mill in the mid-1980s, the result of the government's tariff-lifting measures, saw Tokoroa's number's decline. As of 2010, the population is steady, at 14,000 and had not changed much in the previous 10 years.
As dairy farming increased, with "bush sickness" cured, Tokoroa became a farming center. In 1995 New Zealand's major dairy company, Fonterra, built a cheese factory at Lichfield, a few miles north of Tokoroa. At the time, it was the largest in the southern hemisphere and another major employer for the district.
Tokoroa is proud of its talking pole wooden sculptures. A trail of the chainsaw-carved poles and trees winds through the center of town and tells visitors about the district's history and people.The sculptures are an established tourist attraction and part of the history of the town they talk about.
