This dataset consists of polygons representing the approximate boundaries of surveys, plats, and subdivisions in Skamania County, Washington. Each record in the data represents an officially recorded document stored within the Skamania County Auditor's recording office. Each polygon roughly represents the boundary depicted on recorded maps of surveys, plats, subdivisions, boundary line adjustments, city plats, condos, or mobile home parks. The general intent is to represent recorded documents that are 'maps', rather than written legal descriptions. e.g. deeds, etc.

The data is useful for geographically identifying surveys/plats that have been completed within a specific area. The associated table provides detailed information about each recorded document such as the Auditor's File Number (AFN), recorder's Book and Page reference, date of recording, document type, etc. The table provides recording information from two primary sources. The first source is index information entered by the Auditor's recording office (via extract from the Auditor's Helion database). The second source is index information entered by WA Dept of Natural Resources (DNR) as they receive the survey images separately, and complete their own indexing in their WebXtender land records database.

Field name prefixes in the attributes table are as follows:

AF_ = The data is (generally) derived from the Auditor File record extract, directly as it is stored. (Historically extracted from Acclaim database; in modern times extracted from Helion database). See Auditor's office Helion web application for more info.

DNR_ = The data is derived from the DNR's WebXtender extract, exactly as it is stored with no edits made by GIS staff. See WA DNR's WebXtender User Guide for more info.

GIS_ = The data is created by Skamania GIS staff. This is often a field calculation from other fields, but also can include manual edits to resolve issues posed by the source record, such as missing data, etc.

History of the Auditor's office and DNR's recording and indexing methods:

Approximately 1999: DNR collects all existing oversized survey maps and takes them to Olympia. DNR scans all hardcopies from Skamania County to add them to their own archive/storage and provides the digital files back to Skamania County. DNR completes their own indexing. From this point forward they receive periodic mailings of Skamania map recordings and they scan and index the documents themselves.

Pre-2004-ish: The Skamania County recording office would file surveys, plats, subdivisions, city plats, mobile home park plats, condos etc. in separate 'Books'. Individual records were identifiable by their 'Book' (type and volume), and 'Page'. Usually each record would also have a 5 or 6 character Auditor File/Document number.

Beginning about 2004: The Auditor's office begins assigning a 4-character year as a prefix to the AFN. Complete AFNs become 10-character, e.g. 2004-152868.

Beginning 1/1/2013: Skamania County Auditor starts zeroing their Auditor File/Document number at the beginning of each new year (e.g. 2013-000001).

Beginning about 10/29/2024: DNR begins accepting scanned images from Skamania County instead of hardcopies. They no longer scan the images separately. When they receive the images they continue to do their own indexing.