 Marion
County, originally named Champooick District
(later Champoeg), was created on July 5, 1843, by the Provisional
Legislature. Champoeg District stretched southward to the California
border and eastward to the Rocky Mountains. The area, however, was
soon reduced with the creation of Wasco, Linn, Polk, and other counties.
Marion County's present geographical boundaries, established in 1856,
are the Willamette River and Butte Creek on the north, the Cascade
Range on the east, the Santiam River and North Fork of the Santiam
on the south, and the Willamette River on the west. Marion County
shares political borders with Clackamas, Yamhill, Polk, and Linn Counties.
The county contains 1,194 square miles.
Champoeg
District was redesignated a county in 1845 and renamed Marion County
in 1849 after General Francis Marion, a Revolutionary War hero.
That same year Salem was designated the county seat. The territorial
capital was moved from Oregon City to Salem in 1852. The ensuing
controversy over the location of the capital was settled in 1864
when Salem was confirmed as the state capital.
Marion
County has had three courthouses, all located on the same site in
Salem. The first courthouse was completed in 1854 and replaced in
1873. During the 1930s and 1940s efforts to move the 1873 building
and preserve it as a museum failed and it was demolished in 1952.
The third and present courthouse was completed in 1954.
Marion
County had a county court form of government for the first century
of its existence. The county court exercised a combination of executive,
administrative, and judicial functions; however as the judicial
branch of state government developed, the necessity for the county
court to exercise judicial functions diminished. In 1941 the county
was divested of all judicial responsibilities, and the remaining
vestiges of probate and civil jurisdiction were transferred to the
circuit court. In 1961 the Legislative Assembly enabled a county
court with no judicial functions to reorganize as a board of county
commissioners. With court approval, the Marion County Court was
abolished and became the Marion County Board of Commissioners in
1963.
The
2000 population of 284,834 represented an increase of 24.66% over
1990.
Marion
County is located in the center of the Willamette Valley. Agriculture
and food processing are important to the county's economy, as are
lumber, manufacturing, and education. Government, however, is the
county's main employer and economic base.
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 Willamette
University in Salem is the oldest institution of higher
education in the West. The small university traces its
history to missionary Jason Lee's 1842 founding. Among
its other firsts, the university established the first
law school (1883) and the first school of medicine (1866)
in the Pacific Northwest.
It
was originally named the Oregon Institute, but in 1853
it changed to "Wallamet" University. The university's
original building, a three-story frame structure, held
its first occupants in 1844. Because it had what was
considered the most imposing edifice in the Northwest,
the building also served the larger community beyond
the school. For example, it housed the first session
of the legislature to meet in Salem and held the first
court in the territory under United States auspices.
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