Making Land Records Accessible: Montana’s GIS Cadastral Transformation

Montana’s natural beauty, ranging from expansive prairies to crystal-clear lakes and forested mountains, is central to its identity. With two of America’s oldest national parks nestled within its borders, the state’s breathtaking scenery has served as the inspiration for many beloved films and television series. This has led both residents and nonresidents to desire property in this iconic setting.

For business owners, residents, and conservation trusts alike, the first step in securing landownership is using the Montana Cadastral web application. Leveraging advanced geographic information system (GIS) technologies, the web application offers comprehensive real estate data, parcel details, and property owner tax parcel information. Users can easily access in-depth property insights by searching by owner name, address, geocode, and more.

Montana Cadastral, maintained through a partnership between the Montana State Library (MSL) and the Montana Department of Revenue (DOR), has transformed access to land information in the state. While it’s been a steady process of development for more than 20 years, using Montana Cadastral is now easier than ever to explore and understand Montana’s land data.

With an area of approximately 147,040 square miles, comparable to the size of Germany or Japan, managing cadastral information has long been a significant geospatial data priority in this state. Erin Fashoway, the Montana GIS coordinator at MSL, noted that prior to the rollout of the cadastral application’s rollout in the mid-2000s, with 56 counties, colleagues commonly had to travel extensive distances to access land records from each county courthouse. This was time-consuming and often led to errors. It’s also important to note that Montana was one of the first states to have a statewide parcel layer accessible by web services, data downloads, and Esri mapping applications.

“Early on, the roll-up of information meant driving to every county courthouse, which was clearly inefficient. [MSL and DOR] gained acceptance from local counties, state executive leadership, and the legislature to provide a better option,” explained Fashoway. “My predecessor and the group of dedicated geospatial [technology] professionals had the grit and determination to create a well-managed and openly available system for sharing geospatial data.”

The new system would help coordinate efforts between local counties, state leaders, and the legislature, making the process of managing and sharing cadastral data more streamlined and reliable.

Envisioning a solution that easily allows users to find a property and its information on the Montana Cadastral web application is one thing. Building it was another. Kenny Ketner, the MSL information products lead, has been with the organization for eight years. He has seen many changes in the apps and tools used to share Montana’s property data and other information. Ketner, working alongside a team of GIS professionals, software developers, and systems engineers at MSL, built the web application.

But first, before the web application could be built, the team needed to address the challenges of accessing geospatial data. Given the vast expanse of Montana, developing a digital solution was crucial to enabling government users statewide to access and securely manage land record data. To accomplish this, the team leveraged ArcGIS Enterprise, a robust software system that facilitates map creation, geospatial analysis, and collaborative problem-solving.

The resultant Montana Spatial Data Infrastructure (MSDI) consists of 15 framework geographic data themes vital to Montanans for viewing, analyzing, exploring, and understanding the state’s expansive and complex geography. These data layers support the business needs of Montanans, with the key data layer being the cadastral, along with property tax records.

MSL’s mission is to manage the MSDI and provide unified availability and access to accurate, up-to-date information about public and private landownership for all Montanans. This data is also accessible for state and local government geographers, geologists, archaeologists, biologists, and others. MSL accomplishes this in coordination with other state departments and local governments. Key collaborators include MSL, DOR, cartographers, and several populous counties that share their property records.

Together with DOR, MSL’s data stewards and staff assist the process by making topological or property boundary data layer updates. This includes MSL staff incorporating survey control data to align and improve the accuracy of the property or parcel boundary records. 

With the MSDI in place, the next step was to offer a visual tool for accessing cadastral data. This required making updates and integrating other tools with the state’s geospatial data. ArcGIS Online, a cloud-based mapping and analysis solution, allows users to create, share, and analyze maps and data. It would provide the MSL team with opportunities to visualize this information in compelling interactive maps, dashboards, and web applications.

“We knew we had to update the Montana Cadastral web app—a custom JavaScript API .NET MVC [model view controller] app—to Esri’s latest ArcGIS Experience Builder web app configuration tools and framework,” said Ketner. “The crux was we wanted to use the [older ArcGIS] Experience Builder (Developer Edition) and needed contemporary software development operations, or DevOps, to improve our methods and streamline future website changes, system integrations, and scaling.”

At the Esri Developer & Technology Summit, Ketner saw Esri partner Langan Engineering and Environmental Services’ presentation, which demonstrated a modern, easy-to-use option for containerizing and deploying Experience Builder applications. 

“Upon meeting Kenny and his team, we knew there was a perfect match for our tools and expertise,” said Chris Dougherty, Langan head of systems and development. “It was an exciting opportunity, and it was clear that Kenny and his team knew exactly what they wanted.” 

Fast-forward to October 2024, and the newly updated Montana Cadastral app has been deployed for public use. It’s been tweaked a couple of times to boost back-end processing times, and the site is now accomplishing MSL’s goals.

As far as current usage and end-user satisfaction since the app’s creation, the numbers speak for themselves. Ketner said that usage surged to three times the website’s previous average and that the outcome has been quite positive. A good test was the timing of deploying the updated app—it happened at a time when property tax rebates and form submittals were driving heavy traffic to the app. 

Ketner said, “It clearly underscored the importance and effectiveness of the updated app to Montana property owners as well as MSL and the DOR.”

In recent years, the MSL has been recognized for its efforts. MSL geospatial data experts have been on national working groups to help make federal policy and give advice to other states. The National States Geographic Information Council and Esri have often praised MSL as a model and leader among US states for managing property records and an SDI. MSL staff’s work also won an Esri Special Achievement in GIS Award in July 2024 at the Esri User Conference.

Despite the success of Montana Cadastral, Fashoway, Ketner, and the MSL team remain mindful of maintaining the momentum. They recognize the increase of migration into the state, which demands timely, accurate, and current property information. They also acknowledge the challenges and pressures faced by Montana’s local governments. This underscores the importance of a culture of continuous development and innovation to sustain the app’s success.

“When the mayor or economic development team for a small town in Montana wants to explore options for sustainable growth and development, or the expansion of business in their area, they turn to these resources for assistance,” said Fashoway. “We work directly with our Montana stakeholders to make sure that our maps, apps, and tools can serve the growing needs of our state.”

To keep up with innovation and the need for accurate information, MSL is making several improvements in 2025. Staff are updating tools on the ArcGIS platform. This includes moving available geospatial data to new hub sites that were created with ArcGIS Hub, as well as to map galleries on the MSL’s ArcGIS Online portal. The MSL team is also adding new widgets to the Montana Cadastral app, such as the Swipe tool, which allows users to compare before-and-after images of property features. These updates will make the app more useful. One of the most requested tools is the PDF/Print tool, which has become a key feature of MSL’s apps.

MSL’s focus on continuous improvement helps support Montanans as well as visitors to the state.