Oregon Free Public Records Directory

In 1843, a western portion of the United States was formed into the Oregon Territory, and on February 14, 1859, that territory became the 33rd state of the United States, known as the State of Oregon. In 1805-06, the Lewis and Clark Expedition travelled through northern Oregon in search of the Northwest Passage. They built their winter fort at Fort Clatsop, near the mouth of the Columbia River. Over the next 40 years, a number of explorers established posts in the region. The Oregon Trail brought new American settlers to the Oregon Country starting in 1842-43.

Oregon is comprised of 36 counties and is ranked the 9th largest state with 98,381 square miles. It is 27th in population at approximately 4,000,000 residents. The majority of Oregon’s population lives in Portland and its metropolitan area with a population of approximately 2,400,000. Salem, the capital, is the second largest city in Oregon with a population of approximately 165,000. As you can see, most of the population resides in these two areas of Oregon.

Oregon houses a number of national corporate headquarters with seven of the companies in the Fortune 1000 for 2015. Located in Beaverton, Oregon, Nike is a top-ranked employer, as well as Adidas Corporation located in Portland, Oregon, and the Intel Corporation, located west of Portland, in Hillsboro, Oregon.

If you live in Oregon, you live in one of the most geographically diverse states in the country. Oregon’s western boundary is located on the Pacific Ocean, with the Columbia River delineating most of Oregon’s northern boundary between Washington and Oregon and the Snake River delineating most of its eastern boundary between Idaho and Oregon. The southern boundary runs along California and Nevada on the parallel 42⁰ North. This state contains numerous bodies of water, dense evergreen forests, high deserts and semi-arid shrub lands. The mild climate is greatly influenced by the Pacific Ocean where the western third of the state is very wet in the winter, moderately to very wet in the spring and fall, and dry during the summer. High desert comprises most of the eastern two thirds of the State, where the winters are cold and snowy and the summers are very dry. Located in the southwest portion of Oregon, Crater Lake National Park is Oregon’s only national park. The park surrounds the intense blue Crater Lake, which many consider the most beautiful lake in the country. It is surrounded entirely by cliffs and is the deepest lake in the United States at 1,949 feet.

Much of Oregon’s economy is based on various forms of agriculture, fishing and hydroelectric power due to the diversity of its geography. Oregon is a major timber producing and logging state due to its dense evergreen forests. The various waterways account for its hydroelectric power and one of the world’s largest salmon-fishing industries. Oregon’s environments are ideally suited for farming which includes over 100 million pounds of blueberries each year, one of the world’s four major hazelnut growing regions, commercially cultivated cranberries, and ideal grapes for high quality, small production wine.

If you have research needs for some type of Oregon public record, please check out our list below of available records including such categories as property records, vital records, community health and safety records, and various types of criminal and court records.

Abbreviation	OR, Ore.
Capital	Salem
Population	4,142,776 (2017 est.)
Area size	98,381 sq. mi
Demonym	Oregonian
Primary languages spoken	English
Governor	Kate Brown
Lieutenant Governor	Dennis Richardson
U.S. Senators	Ron Wyden, Jeff Merkley
U.S. House Delegation	1 Republican, 4 Democrats
Time Zone	Primary - Pacific: UTC -8/-7 Malheur County - Mountain: UTC -7/-6

*The map and data in the table are from Wikipedia.

Browse by Public Record Category

There are two types of public records; 1) personal public records that document major life milestones such as birth certificates, death certificates, divorce records, and marriage records, etc.; and 2) government records that are made public such as property tax records, recorded land records, voter records, crime data, jail inmate records, and court records. ^[3] The Freedom of Information Act is a national law that releases government agency public records and makes it possible to view most public records. Since there are a multitude of records available, it can be difficult to know how or where to access them. When you are ready to start your search, you’ll find our Public Records Directory website easy to use since all of the records can be searched by federal, state, county, city, town or type of record. The links provided will connect you to the best website for the record search, provide details about the record, or provide contact information for those records without search capabilities.