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By Alex Chamberlain
Over the past several years, the term “Public Information” has become something of a buzz-word. Everything from unreleased documents on the Kennedy Assassination, to the tax returns of our elected officials, have become more widely available than ever before, and the Internet has largely been the key. Take land ownership information for instance. Finding out who owns a piece of land used to involve either a visit with the old-timers in front of the post-office or a trip to the county recorder’s office with hip boots and a shovel.
Today, we live in a time that is simultaneously much simpler and much more complicated. The availability of accurate and up-to-date ownership information on the Internet not only saves us the headache of digging through deeds, it also makes this info available from your living room. In order to lookup the owner of a parcel, you will need the following:
    A computer connected to the Internet and running Microsoft Windows.
    Microsoft Internet Explorer.
That’s it. For some reason, this process doesn’t support the use of Mozilla Firefox, so again, make sure you’re using Internet Explorer. Additionally, I haven’t tried this on a Mac, so Mac users: feel free to let me know how it goes. That said, the process is as follows:
Navigate to http://www.washco.state.ut.us/maps.php. I find it easiest to open this page in two separate windows or tabs. In one of the windows (or tabs) click on the “interactive map” link. You’ll need your pop-up blocker disabled for this exercise. Clicking anywhere on this page will zoom your view to the region on which you clicked. When you can see the parcel you wish to inquire about, click “Identify” in the “Interactive map tools” on the left side of your window. Then click the parcel. A popup window will display a little information about the property. You will need the value under “Tax_ID.” Highlight this value and copy it by pressing (CTRL+C).
In the other window (or tab) click on “Ownership Info.” Then click “Enter” and then “Public Login.” Paste the Tax_ID value from the previous window into the box labeled “Parcel Number” by pressing (CTRL+V) and then click “Search.” The Next page will tell you the ownership information of the parcel. Clicking the account number will give you even more detail including total acreage, taxable value and the address of the owner.
Obviously, just because this information is public doesn’t mean it shouldn’t be used responsibly. Please remember that the owners of most of the land you’ll be researching are private individuals who probably wish to keep their privacy, so you may want to think twice before inviting them to your Tupperware party.
This is the first in a series of public information articles that I hope to bring to you in the coming months. This article has been more of a tutorial, but there are a number of topics that I feel would be useful to address. Most of all, I’d like to hear from you, the readers, as to what you would like to know regarding the private land development process, architecture, engineering, municipal law, zoning, etc. So please, feel free to drop me a line at alex@neisouth.com and thanks for reading.
Alex Chamberlain has been actively involved in Civil Engineering in Southern Utah since 2004 when he started as a draftsman at Pratt Precision Engineering. In 2007, Pratt Precision Engineering merged with Northern Engineering Inc., where Alex currently acts as the Director of Visualization and Marketing. Alex has two small children, and a wife, who is much prettier and smarter than him.

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