Black Hawk County has made historic property ownership records available online.
Transfer books maintained by the county Auditor’s Office have been scanned to digital images and placed in a searchable online database.
Title searchers and other members of the public interested in tracing property ownership previously had to access physical copies of the books by visiting the Courthouse plat room in person.
The Board of Supervisors approved a contract with ArcaSearch LLC, of St.Cloud, Minn., to scan high-quality color images of the books and host them on a website which can be accessed via links from the county website or directly at https://gov.arcasearch.com/usiablk/
Records on the site, which date back to 1868, are searchable by subdivision or by section/township/range for unplatted lands.
Just over $42,000 in federal American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funds were used to pay for the project.
“The Black Hawk County Courthouse was closed for three months during the Covid-19 pandemic,” said Tim Jamison, county real estate tax manager. “The use of ARPA funds is appropriate because this project now ensures these records vital to real estate commerce are available 24/7 from any computer terminal should the courthouse need to close or personal contact need to be limited due to another public health emergency.”
“We are also relieved these records are now preserved from loss due to deterioration, theft, fire or natural disaster,” he added. “And we believe frequent users of these records will find it much more convenient to access these records without having to drive to the courthouse.”
For more information about the digitizing of land transfer records, contact the Auditor's Office at (319) 833-3002.
###