Oregon State...
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Oregon Counties
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Benton County, Oregon
Benton County History, Geography, Demographics, Cities and Towns, and Education
County Seat:
Year Organized: 1847
Square Miles:
MSA: |
Court House:
120 NW 4th
Corvallis, OR 97330
Clerk: (541) 766-6831
Courts: (541) 766-6859
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Named: Named in honor of Senator Thomas Hart Benton of Missouri, who
was instrumental in promoting the development of Oregon Country.
State & County QuickFacts:
History
Benton County was established by the
Provisional Legislature in 1847. It was named in honor of Senator Thomas Hart
Benton of Missouri, who was instrumental in promoting the development of Oregon
Country. Carved from Polk County, Benton County stretched from the Polk County
boundary south to the California border and from the Pacific Ocean east to the
Willamette River. Umpqua, Lane, Douglas, Jackson, Lincoln, Josephine, Curry, and
Coos Counties were created from portions of the original Benton County. Today
Benton County occupies 679 square miles of the central Willamette Valley and is
bordered on the east by the Willamette River and Linn County, on the west by the
summit of the Coast Range and Lincoln County, on the north by Polk County, and
on the south by Lane County.
The city of Marysville, later renamed Corvallis, became the county seat in 1851.
The first county courthouse was erected in 1854. The second courthouse, built in
1889, is the oldest in Oregon that is still used for its original purpose. It
was extensively renovated in 1976 to restore and preserve the historic character
of the building. Nearby buildings house those offices not located in the
courthouse.
At the time of its creation, Benton County government consisted of two or more
justices of the peace acting as county commissioners; a judicial system
including circuit, probate, and justice courts; clerks for each court; law
enforcement offices of sheriff and coroner; and the tax and finance offices of
the assessor, tax collector, and treasurer. In 1972 a home rule charter was
passed in Benton County and the governing body of the county became a
three-member board of commissioners.
Benton County was created out of land originally inhabited by the Klickitat
Indians. All Indian claims to land within Benton County were ceded in the Treaty
of Dayton in 1855. In 1862 Corvallis became the site of the Oregon State
Agricultural College, known today as Oregon State University. Along with the
university, agriculture, lumber, and wood products form the economic base of the
county. The 2000 population of 78,153 marked a 10.37% increase over the 1990
population.
Neighboring Counties:
Cities:
County Resources:
Enter County Resources and Information Here
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County Resource Guide
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The history of our nation can be seen as a prolonged struggle to define the relative roles and powers of our governments: federal, state, and local. And the names we’ve given our counties, our most locally based jurisdictions, reflects the “characteristic features of
our country!”
But age, size and colorful names of our counties isn’t the only reason to explore counties’ role in American history, or the history of county government itself. In fact, the story of county government reflects the larger meanings of American history.
Today’s counties are the most flexible, locally responsive and creative governments in the US. They are the most diverse, varying in size, population, geography, and governmental structure. In their politics and policies, they express a 1990’s political slogan “Think globally, act locally.” |
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Penn Foster High School
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