 Polk
County was
created by the Provisional Legislature from Yamhill District
on December 22, 1845. The county was named after President James Knox Polk and
originally included the entire southwestern portion of present day Oregon to the
California border. County boundaries were periodically changed to reflect the
creation of Benton and Lincoln Counties. Polk County today contains 745 square
miles and stretches from the Willamette River on the east to the Coast Range on
the west. It is bordered by Yamhill, Lincoln, Benton, and Marion Counties.
The first county
seat was a settlement on the north side of Rickreall Creek named Cynthian (also
known as Cynthia Ann). In 1852 city officials changed the name to Dallas after
Vice President George M. Dallas. By 1856, the lack of an adequate source of drinking
water compelled the town to move more than a mile to the south. During the 1880s
and 1890s, Dallas withstood efforts to move the county seat to nearby Independence. Three
courthouses have served Polk County. The first was built in Cynthian in 1851 but
was dismantled when the town was moved. Soon thereafter the county built a second
courthouse in Dallas, but it was destroyed by fire in 1898. Construction of the
present courthouse began the same year and was completed in 1900. In 1966 the
county completed a three-story annex. Further expansion occurred in 1989 when
the Polk County Human Services Department was consolidated in the newly acquired
Academy Building. For
over a century, Polk County was governed by a county court. By the early 1960s
the county court in Polk County had ceased to exercise judicial power and was
renamed the board of commissioners. The board of commissioners acts as the governing
body for the county and is responsible for county administration, management,
and policy. Polk
County's 2000 population of 62,380 represented an increase of 25.92% over 1990. The
major industries of the county are agriculture, forest products, manufacturing,
and education. Western Oregon University is located in Monmouth.
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 The
company town of Valsetz, once nestled in the remote Coast Range Mountains of western
Polk County, now exists only in photographs and memories. The name of the community
derived from a contraction of the Valley and Siletz Railroad that served it. The
railroad, designed to exploit the vast stands of timber in the area, reached the
Valsetz area in 1920. A sawmill and company housing soon followed and the community
thrived until stands of old timber were depleted in the 1970s.
In
1984 the Boise Cascade Corporation, owner of all of the structures and land, ceased
operations and quite literally "removed" the town. The property was
added to the Valsetz Tree Farm and the residents, some of whom lived in Valsetz
for decades, sadly moved on. | |
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