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Baker, Benton, Clackamas, Clatsop, Columbia, Coos, Crook, Curry, Deschutes, Douglas, Gilliam, Grant, Harney, Hood River, Jackson, Jefferson, Josephine, Klamath, Lake, Lane, Lincoln, Linn, Malheur, Marion, Morrow, Multnomah, Polk, Sherman, Tillamook, Umatilla, Union, Wallowa, Wasco, Washington, Wheeler, Yamhill

Oregon Counties

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Oregon Counties

There are 36 counties in the state of Oregon. The Oregon Constitution does not explicitly provide for county seats.

Jefferson County, Oregon

Jefferson County History, Geography, Demographics, Cities and Towns, and Education

County Seat: Madras
Year Organized: 1914
Square Miles: 1,781

Court House:

66 SE D Street, Suite A
County Courthouse
Madras, OR 97741-1707

Etymology - Origin of County Name

Madras, named after the city in India, was incorporated in 1911 and serves as the county seat.

Demographics:

County QuickFacts: Census Bureau Quick Facts

County History

Jefferson County was created on December 12, 1914, out of territory that was once part of Crook County. The county was named after Mount Jefferson, the second highest peak in Oregon with an elevation of 10,497 feet, which marks the county's western skyline. The county is bounded on the north by Wasco County, on the east by Wheeler and Crook Counties, on the south by Deschutes County, and on the west by Linn and Marion Counties. The county encompasses 1791 square miles.

Madras, named after the city in India, was incorporated in 1911 and serves as the county seat. A new county courthouse was built in 1961. County government is administered by a three-member board of commissioners.

The county's population at its first federal census in 1920 was 3,211. The 2000 population of 19,009 represented a 39% increase from 1990.

Principle industries are agriculture, forest products, and recreation. The fertile North Unit Irrigation District in the central part of the county produces seed, potatoes, hay, and mint. The eastern part of the county has dry wheat farming and grazing land for cattle, and the western part is timber country. Warm Springs Forest Product Industries and Kah-Nee Ta Vacation Resort, owned by the Confederated Tribes of the Warm Springs Reservation, provide many jobs in the area. The reservation is located on portions of land in four counties including 236,082 acres in the northwestern corner of Jefferson County.

The county owes much of its agricultural prosperity to the arrival of the railroad in 1911 and to the development of irrigation projects in the late 1930s. The railroad, linking Madras with the Columbia River, was completed after constant feuds and battles between two lines working opposite sides of the Deschutes River.

Neighboring Counties:

Insert Counties Here

Cities and Towns:

- Culver	city	Incorporated Area
- Madras (County Seat)	city	Incorporated Area
- Metolius	city	Incorporated Area

County Resources:

Enter County Resources and Information Here

County Resources

The history of our nation was a prolonged struggle to define the relative roles and powers of our governments: federal, state, and local. And the names given the counties, our most locally based jurisdictions, reflects the "characteristic features of this 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."