Colorado county digitizes its documents and records, including some from more than 160 years ago

October 10 is Electronic Records Day, and Arapahoe County is now making it much easier to access old Colorado documents. After four years of tedious work, the County's Clerk and Recorder's Office just finished a huge job in digitizing millions of records and old documents -- some dating back to the county's founding in 1861.

"It's important to us as records custodians, we want to preserve Arapahoe County's history," said Juan Guzman, the Deputy Director of Records for Arapahoe County. "We're very excited. Today is a major milestone for us."

Guzman said more than a century-and-a-half of local history sits in in the county's public records room. In it are rows and stacks of books containing documents dating back more than 160 years.

"In here, you have historical patents of land when land was being transferred. You also have transactions related to land record transactions, the buying of selling of properties, homesteads and more."

Guzman said 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 in the Clerk and Recorder's Office.

"The purpose of those transactions was to let everyone know in the community that a transaction had taken place," said Guzman. "We also have historical documents at different time periods in history, all the way back to the American the Civil War, World War I, World War II, the Vietnam era. So, there's a lot of history encapsulated in all these books."

Turning all the old documents into digital copies and records takes time. Between pulling books, scanning them, and digitizing the records, Juan Guzman and a team spent thousands of hours preserving the county's history.

"That means pulling over 1,000 books, scanning over 800 microfilm rolls and page by page, going through and creating a digital image of Arapahoe County's history," said Guzman. "Over the past four years, we've digitized over 3 million documents and over 6.5 million images."

The documents are now protected from damage and deterioration, natural disasters and human handling.

"Historically, we did have issues with the handling of the older documents, where they would deteriorate. You would also get oil on some of the documents, and that would damage them," said Guzman. "Prior to the digitization effort, we were always worried that a disaster could occur, and all of the documents and the historical knowledge would be lost."

"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, the senior communications business partner with the county.

Skelley said some records go back to when Arapahoe County was county, but Colorado wasn't a state. He shared more about some of the unique records.

"We've got some documents where soldiers from the War of 1812 had land patents granted to them by the President of the United States, President Johnson," said Skelley. "One of the most important duties we have, is to protect and preserve our history. And when you go back through a lot of these old records, you see Arapahoe County's history, and you can see how far we've come in the 164 years that we've been recording everything here."

One document shows 40 acres of land bought for just $112. One deed of trust shows the transfer of land on Cherry Creek. Each document has its own story.

"This was transferring 160 acres of land from one party to another," said Skelley as shared an old deed of trust. "Not only does this convey the property, but everything that was on the property. So we've got 200+ sacks of flour, we've got 100 pounds of bacon, down here we've got corn brandy."

With the help of technology these documents have now made their way to the 21st century.

"Before you would have to come into our office in person and flip through index books and physical land records books. Now all of those records are available 24/7 from the comfort of your home through 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.