HARRISON COUNTY, Ohio

As the oil and gas industry continues to boom in the Ohio Valley, so do county recorders' offices.

Harrison County is the first to put into practice a new system that will help preserve important paperwork.

"We are so busy we can't keep up with our daily work," Harrison County Recorder Tracy Boyer said.

That seems to be the theme at that office that is jam-packed with oil and gas researchers looking up property owners' deeds, which tell tell the story of a property back 100 years.

Boyer said her records were getting destroyed from overuse, so she came up with a plan.

"Every document in this office is being digitalized," she said.

A company that wishes to remain anonymous is paying an estimated $100,000 to make all of the county's records digital.

Boyer said oil and gas company representatives scan the documents from the book and upload them to the computer. Harrison County is the first local county to put this into practice.

Boyer also said from January until now, the office has recorded 7,200 documents and collected more than $500,000.