Madras, named after the city in India, was incorporated in 1911 and serves as the county seat. A new county courthouse was built in 1961. County government is administered by a three-member board of commissioners. Political jurisdictions in the county include Senate District 27, Representative District 55, and the Second Congressional District. The county's population at its first federal census in 1920 was 3,211.
Principle industries are agriculture, forest products, and recreation.
The fertile North Unit Irrigation District in the central part of the county produces seed, potatoes, hay, and mint. The eastern part of the county has dry wheat farming and grazing land for cattle, and the western part is timber country. The Warm Springs Forest Product Industry owned by the Confederated Tribes of the Warm Springs Reservation is the single largest industry. The reservation is located on portions of land in four counties including 236,082 acres in the northwestern corner of Jefferson County. The county owes much of its agricultural prosperity to the arrival of the railroad in 1911 and to the development of irrigation projects in the late 1930s.