HIDDEN IN THE TITLE SERIES
Hidden in the Title is a series that explores the fascinating stories, historical quirks, unusual laws, and surprising events that still shape land ownership and title records across the United States. From forgotten roads and century-old deed restrictions to land lotteries, vanished towns, old courthouses, and historic property rights that still affect legal decisions today, these stories reveal just how much American history can be hidden inside a title search.
Full Archive Below
The Homestead Act may seem like a piece of 19th-century history, but homesteading continued in Alaska into the 1980s. The story of Kenneth W. Deardorff, America’s last homesteader, shows how federal land records can preserve the beginnings of a property’s title history.
Property records do more than document ownership. In Baldwin County, Alabama, the fight over the county seat ultimately came down to possession of the courthouse records themselves. The story is an unusual reminder of why deeds, plats, land records, and other recorded documents preserve far more than individual transactions.
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