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“It’s important to us as custodians of records; we want to preserve the history of Arapahoe County,” said Juan Guzmán, Arapahoe County deputy recorder. “We are very excited. Today is an important milestone for us.”
Guzmán said more than a century and a half of local history is found in the county’s public records room. In it are rows and stacks of books containing documents dating back more than 160 years.
“There are historical land patents here when land was transferred. There are also transactions related to land record transactions, buying or selling property, estates and more.”
Guzmán said that in the early 1860s, when people wanted to document transactions and leave public notices, they would go to the county building and transcribe those transactions on paper at the Clerk and Recorder’s Office.
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“The purpose of those transactions was to let everyone in the community know that a transaction had taken place,” Guzmán said. “We also have historical documents in different periods of history, from the American Civil War, World War I, World War II, the Vietnam era. So there’s a lot of history encapsulated in all of these books.”
Converting all old documents into digital copies and records takes time. Between removing books, scanning them, and digitizing the records, Juan Guzmán and a team spent thousands of hours preserving the county’s history.
“That means pulling over 1,000 books, scanning over 800 rolls of microfilm and page by page, reviewing and creating a digital image of the history of Arapahoe County,” Guzman said. “Over the past four years, we have digitized more than 3 million documents and more than 6.5 million images.”
Documents are now protected against damage and deterioration, natural disasters and human tampering.
“Historically, we had problems with the handling of older documents, where they deteriorated. Some of the documents also got stained with oil, and that damaged them,” Guzmán said. “Before the digitization effort, we were always worried that a disaster could strike and all the documents and historical knowledge would be lost.”
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“A lot of these are written, probably with a fountain pen and a quill. You can see that over time, the ink just fades or bleeds,” said Tom Skelley, senior communications business partner for the county.
Skelley said some records date back to when Arapahoe County was a county, but Colorado was not a state. He shared more about some of the unique records.
“We have some documents where the president of the United States, President Johnson, granted land patents to soldiers from the War of 1812,” Skelley said. “One of the most important duties we have is to protect and preserve our history. And when you look back at a lot of these old records, you look at the history of Arapahoe County and you can see how far we’ve come in the 164 years we’ve been recording everything here.”
One document shows 40 acres of land purchased for just $112. A trust deed shows the transfer of land in Cherry Creek. Each document has its own story.
“This was transferring 160 acres of land from one party to another,” Skelley said as he shared an old trust deed. “This not only conveys the property, but everything that was on the property. So we have over 200 bags of flour, we have 100 pounds of bacon, we have corn brandy down here.”
With the help of technology, these documents have reached the 21st century.
“Before, you had to come to our office in person and flip through index books and physical land record books. Now all of those records are available 24/7 from the comfort of your home via a computer with Internet access.”
Thanks to $920,000 in grants, the effort only cost the county and taxpayers $280,000.
To access the database, visit the Arapahoe County Clerk and Recorder’s Office website at arapahoeco.gov.