During the month of October, American Archives Month is intended to raise public awareness about the importance of historic documents and records.

An archives is a place where people go to find information. People who do research in archives often gather firsthand facts, data, and evidence from letters, reports, notes, memos, photographs, audio and video recordings, and other primary sources.

The archives of the Claire McGill Luce Western History Room at the Harney County Library offers free public access to a variety of historical books, publications, photographs, audio and video recordings, oral history interviews, newspapers and other primary sources relating to all aspects of county and local family history.

In addition to on-site physical access to the archives, we offer online access to portions of our archives through the Harney County Library website. We're excited to introduce a new upgrade making possible public access to our cataloged archival records online. You can now search records from the combined collections of the Western History Room at the Harney County Library and the Harney County Historical Museum. Find the link to our digital collections and other helpful research websites on the RESEARCH tab of the Western History Room on the Harney County Library website.

Give the new site a try and share your feedback. We're still in the process of transferring records so check back often to see what's new.

If you don’t find the specific information you’re looking for or need help getting started with a research project, call, email or message the staff and we’ll guide you to the appropriate resources.

This list was curated by Isabelle! Those with asterisks* can be found at HCL.