diff --git a/CHANGELOG.md b/CHANGELOG.md
index cc664092e252a8e4d93211a0a1c88b75220ce110..5b384ceca060af07472c8277d0f2a803c235b8c5 100644
--- a/CHANGELOG.md
+++ b/CHANGELOG.md
@@ -34,6 +34,8 @@ release.
 -->
 
 ## [Unreleased]
+### Fixed
+- Fixed a bug in which read_ipf_str() returned a ValueError [#200](https://github.com/DOI-USGS/plio/issues/200)
 
 ## [1.5.4]()
 ### Fixed
diff --git a/plio/io/io_bae.py b/plio/io/io_bae.py
index ccf57ae318aa5490cb8793f1dfc3fded4661e024..7448a4d30f5e0719ac6c60ab441f045a2d82ae14 100644
--- a/plio/io/io_bae.py
+++ b/plio/io/io_bae.py
@@ -100,7 +100,7 @@ def read_ipf_str(input_data):
                             max_rows = 1, delimiter = ',')
 
     d = [line.split() for line in open(input_data, 'r')]
-    d = np.hstack(np.array(d[3:]))
+    d = np.hstack(np.array(d[3:], dtype=object))
 
     d = d.reshape(-1, 12).astype('unicode')