Oregon State Archives

Oregon Historical County Records Guide

Polk County Records Inventory

Clerk and Recorder Official Filings

1970-[ongoing]

Series documents the filing of transactions, authorized by statute, with the clerk or recorder of the county for the purpose of making the transaction a matter of public record. Information includes dates filed, type and description of transactions, filing numbers, names of parties involved, amounts charged or assessed, and clerk or recorder's signatures. Series may also include alphabetical indexes that contain volume and page numbers where recorded and names of individual filing transactions. Transactions include records that were previously maintained separately, such as mortgages; deeds; military service records; federal, mechanic's, and road improvement liens; mining claims; satisfactions; judgment assignments; notarial commissions; medical and ministerial licenses; oaths; and affidavits of publication. This series is commonly referred to as the Book of Records.

The Book of Records dating from 1985 to the present is available on computer in the county clerk's office. A corresponding computer index is also available dating from 1985 to the present. Records dating from 2003 to the present are to be microfilmed.

Records at the Polk County Courthouse, County Clerk's Office:
[Book of Records], 1970-2002 (446 reels of microfilm);
Book of Records Direct Index [title varies], 1988-1994 (6 volumes);
Book of Records Indirect Index [title varies], 1988-1994 (6 volumes).

Records at the Polk County Courthouse, Assessor's Office:
BOR [Book of Records-reference copy-many in combined volumes], 1970-2005 (274 volumes).

Records at the Polk County Public Works Department Building, Surveyor's Records Storage Room 6:
Information Index Commissioners Journals, Miscellaneous Recordings [indexes Book of Records], 1970-ca.1973 (1 volume).

Contact Archives Division

Open 8 AM - 5 PM, Mon - Fri
Phone (503) 373-0701
Fax (503) 378-4118
reference.archives@state.or.us
800 Summer St NE
Salem, OR 97310-1349