Minn. Stat. § 386.05

Every county board shall procure at the expense of its county, and keep in the office of the county recorder suitable books or electronic media so as to allow information to be arranged or retrieved by the description of each section of land or sectional lot, and town or city lot and block arranged in numerical order, give appropriate initial or abbreviation for the type of instrument, and recite the book and page or the recorded document number by which every record affecting the title to the whole or any part thereof may be found. Such tract index shall be kept as one of the records in the office of the county recorder, and such recorder shall note therein the date, time, and minute of every instrument affecting the title to any land filed for record, to be made opposite to each parcel of land the title to which may be affected by such instrument. Instead of causing a tract index to be made, the board may purchase any existing tract index or abstracts; and thereafter the recorder shall make the appropriate entries therein. In either case, the recorder may make abstracts for persons demanding the same.