Missoula County Awarded $39,000 For Map Missoula Initiative

Press release from the Missoula County Government:

July 21, 2021

For the second year in a row, Missoula County has been awarded a Montana Land Information Act grant to support Map Missoula, a project led by the Clerk and Recorder’s Office. The $39,046 awarded by the Montana State Library will continue last year’s efforts by funding temporary staffing and internships.

Map Missoula aims to expand the current geographic information system capacity of Missoula County to improve access to place-based information and provide accurate data to decisionmakers. Central to these efforts is the mapping of more than 1 million property records on file with the Missoula County Clerk and Recorder.

“Missoula County already leads the way in terms of records accessibility with the property information system,” Real Property Projects Coordinator Sam Scott said. “With Map Missoula, we are continuing to innovate and will provide an unparalleled level of access to property records.”

County staff are using GIS to map real estate documents such as deeds and mortgages to their respective parcels of land. Property records maintained by the Clerk and Recorder’s Office date as far back as 1864. The resulting product will be a comprehensive and interactive map of Missoula County showing the ownership and property boundary changes over the nearly 150-year history of county land records.

Map Missoula also provides a platform to engage with historical content sources from Missoula County and community partners. Current partners include the University of Montana, Heritage Missoula and the Missoula Art Museum, with content ranging from photos to oral histories. Historical resources are continually added to Map Missoula and are available through MapMissoula.us.

Map Missoula has a project timeline of five years, with expected completion in the summer of 2024. This year’s grant runs from July 1, 2021, through June 30, 2022.

For additional information, contact Sam Scott at sdscott@missoulacounty.us.

This press release was produced by the Missoula County Government. The views expressed here are the author’s own.