The Vault
A Mountain of Granite and Gold
By David S. Ouimette

Millions of skiers and snowboarders flock to Utah each winter to enjoy the pristine, powdery slopes of the Wasatch Front. Snowbird and Alta ski resorts are favorite destinations, nestled a few miles up Little Cottonwood Canyon, twenty-five miles southeast of Salt Lake City. In their rush to hit the slopes, few people driving up the canyon notice the huge portals carved out of the mountainside at the entrance of the Granite Mountain Records Vault. Countless records about our ancestors are stored in this vault, like pure gold buried deep in the heart of a mountain of solid granite. Master microfilms of genealogical records are stored in this climate-controlled vault carved out of the mountain. The vault preserves almost 2.4 million microfilms and nearly 1 million microfiche acquired over the decades. That represents more than 3 billion pages of family history records, the largest collection of its kind in the world.

All kinds of genealogical documents are preserved on the microfilms stored in the vault. The majority of these microfilms contain unpublished manuscripts from churches and governments, such as parish registers, passenger lists, birth certificates, censuses, deeds, and wills. Many microfilms contain published works like family history books, county and town histories, census indexes, maps, and genealogy how-to guides.

The greater portion of the microfilm collection covers the time period from the early seventeenth to the early twentieth century, although some records offer glimpses of medieval times and earlier. These microfilms preserve copies of records acquired at thousands of archives and libraries in well over one hundred countries. They preserve centuries of historical evidence about our ancestors’ lives.

The vault is operated by the Family and Church History Department of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (the LDS Church). The Family and Church History Department also manages the Family History Library in Salt Lake City, where copies of most vault microfilms may be viewed by the public, free of charge. Patrons may also view microfilms at any of the nearly 5,000 LDS Family History Centers located throughout the world. These Family History Centers are satellite branch libraries of the main library in Salt Lake City. Individuals can search for a local Family History Center online by visiting. This website also maintains an up-to-date catalog of the vast holdings of the vault’s records, searchable by place, surname, keyword, subject, etc.

Genealogical Records Preservation
Most of the original records about our ancestors exist as loose-leaf manuscripts or bound volumes—fragile documents written on parchment or paper. These records have relatively short life spans, like the people mentioned therein. Fire, flood, war, neglect, humidity, frequent handling, bright light, mildew, and carelessness may degrade or destroy these delicate documents. Records may also be intentionally destroyed or stolen.

The best way to preserve these priceless documents for posterity is to make research-quality copies while safeguarding the original records. Microfilm is a cost-effective way of producing durable, high-quality copies of genealogical records. Microfilms require only about 2 percent of the storage space taken by original documents and last for hundreds of years under proper conditions.

Microfilm comes in rolls up to 130 feet long and may be either 16mm, 35mm, or 105mm wide. Most rolls of film in the vault collection are 35mm wide; the remainder are 16mm. The 105mm format is always cut into sheets 148mm long—these small microfilm sheets are called microfiche. The average microfilm roll in the vault collection contains more than 1,000 images while the average microfiche contains a few hundred images.

Once a book or manuscript is captured on microfilm, the records custodian may choose to remove the original item from public circulation. Duplicate microfilms are easily created for daily use while the microfilm masters serve as permanent backups in case the original documents are ever damaged or lost.

Significant progress has been made in recent years to digitally preserve genealogical records. Digital preservation presents a variety of challenges, including the selection of long-term storage media and file formats. The vault now preserves digital images and will eventually convert much of the microfilm collection to digital formats. Unlike microfilm copies, digital files may be reproduced perfectly and distributed quickly.

History Behind the Vault
The microfilm collection now preserved in the vault was started in the late 1930s by the Genealogical Society of Utah, a non-profit organization created by the LDS Church in 1894 to gather and preserve genealogical records from all over the world. In 1938, the Society experimented with a new technology, acquiring its first microfilm camera. The Society photographed thousands of pages of genealogical records that first year, creating a total of twelve rolls of microfilm. For the first few years, all microfilming occurred in the United States. In the 1940s, microfilming projects were initiated in archives and libraries in England, Denmark, Wales, the Netherlands, Norway, Italy, Switzerland, Sweden, Finland, East Germany, and Ireland.

This budding collection of microfilms needed to be stored in a safe environment. Master microfilms were initially housed in various office buildings. By 1954, the collection had mushroomed to more than 100,000 rolls of microfilm, and it was proposed that an underground vault be constructed to protect and preserve these records.

The perfect site for an underground vault would be within a geologically stable formation of solid rock, with little to no water seepage, conveniently located, and inexpensive to excavate. A few mines and natural caves near Salt Lake City were surveyed. Recommendations were also made for building an underground bunker in the downtown area. Four proposed sites received serious consideration—these locations were in Red Butte Canyon near Fort Douglas, in downtown Salt Lake City, in the foothills north of the city cemetery, and in Little Cottonwood Canyon.

One site in Little Cottonwood Canyon satisfied all the criteria for building an underground records vault. Mormon pioneers had quarried granite from this site one hundred years earlier for construction of the Salt Lake Temple, hewing loose granite boulders into roughly shaped blocks and transporting the massive stone slabs by oxen and mule teams twenty-five miles northwest. In 1956, test drilling commenced and the Deseret News reported that “engineering surveys and a 500-foot core test revealed that it was solid granite, devoid of moisture.”

In March 1959, the leadership of the LDS Church approved construction of the vault in Little Cottonwood Canyon. Blasting and excavation began in May 1960, and by April 1963, construction had progressed sufficiently for the first microfilm masters to be transferred to the vault. In December 1963, after three years and seven months, construction was completed at a total cost of around $2 million. Over the next two years, hardware and furnishings were installed for the film processing laboratory, shipping and receiving, and administration. By October 1965, all these facilities were operational. The following May, the complex was officially named the Granite Mountain Records Vault. Dedicatory services were held on 22 June 1966.

An Ideal Preservation Environment
Records will endure for hundreds of years in the vault’s ideal preservation environment. The cool,
stable climate inside the mountain is maintained by a computer-controlled ventilation and air filtration system, ensuring
a constant temperature of fifty-five degrees Fahrenheit, a relative humidity of 30 percent, and air scrubbed of dust and other particulates.

All of these factors are essential for proper preservation of records. The cool temperature slows any degradation of the film base and emulsion. Maintaining the relative humidity under 50 percent is optimal; if the relative humidity were below 10 to 15 percent the microfilms may become brittle; if the relative humidity were above 50 percent, fungus may actually grow on the film emulsion. The removal of particulates from the air helps keep the surface of the microfilm masters clean and scratch-free. Records stored on film, paper, or digital media can be preserved for centuries in the Granite Mountain Records Vault.

Layout of the Vault
Almost one-and-one-half acres of floor space were carved out of solid granite for records storage and microfilm processing. The storage vaults use a little less than half of the total square footage. The remaining floor space consists of access tunnels and four production portals for microfilm and digital image processing.

The storage vaults hold microfilm and microfiche masters, CDs, DVDs, reel-to-reel audiotapes and motion pictures, and historical papers of the LDS Church. These vaults have a total storage capacity of approximately 6 million rolls of microfilm, well over twice the current inventory. However, the migration from microfilm to digital media may allow for greater storage capacity in the future without the need to excavate additional storage bays.

A reservoir at the end of the central corridor collects pure water that seeps in from fissures in the mountain far behind the storage vaults. This 33,000-gallon reservoir collects about 8,700 gallons of naturally filtered water per day, supplying water to aid in microfilm processing.

Daily Activities in the Vault
Sixty-five full-time employees work in the Granite Mountain Records Vault. They focus on three major production activities: microfilm duplication, print mastering, and microfilm-to-digital conversion.

The film processing laboratory receives microfilm duplication requests every day from the Family History Library and many of the Family History Centers located around the world. The lab services these requests quickly, creating and shipping distribution copies of master microfilms within a few hours. Technicians wear cotton gloves while handling each microfilm, taking every precaution to keep the films clean. Strict quality-control measures take into account the film type, density, and other factors to ensure the highest-quality copies. The film processing lab creates copies of about 800 microfilms and 300 sets of microfiche daily. The vault also ships microfilms to many archives and libraries around the world.

Print mastering is the process of creating secondary microfilm masters for records in high demand, thus keeping the original masters from wearing out. The original masters are retired to preservation status and future copies are created from the secondary masters.

The vault also remasters older acetate-based microfilms, migrating the entire collection to a newer polyester material. Polyester-based microfilm is superior to acetate film in two significant ways: its greater strength makes it virtually impossible to break or tear, and it is more stable over time. For the last twenty years, the vault has been using polyester-based microfilms.

Over the past decade, the microfilm processing lab has converted many thousands of microfilms to digital images. These image files are copied to CD-ROMs and distributed to volunteers trained in name indexing. Many of these indexes are searchable online at: www.familysearch.org.

Partnerships and Worldwide Camera Operations
The Genealogical Society of Utah has a close working relationship with many archives and libraries throughout the world. One such partner is the National Archives of the United States. The National Archives and Records Administration protects the records of the United States federal government, including many records of great value to family historians. As part of a mutually beneficial agreement, the Granite Mountain Records Vault is currently processing tens of thousands of microfilm masters owned by the National Archives, including federal census and immigration records. The vault workers are remastering the original acetate-based microfilms, creating new polyester-based replacements for the National Archives, and extending the longevity of the federal government’s records collection.

In exchange for permission to microfilm valuable genealogical documents, the Genealogical Society of Utah provides records custodians with “donor copies” of the microfilms. Some archives and libraries use these microfilms as preservation copies of their collections. Other repositories let their patrons use the microfilm copies of their records while preserving their original manuscripts and books in archival storage.

The Genealogical Society of Utah currently operates 220 cameras in forty-six countries worldwide: Australia, Austria, Belarus, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, Cape Verde, China, Colombia, Denmark, Dominican Republic, England, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Haiti, Hungary, India, Indonesia, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Mexico, Moldova, the Netherlands, Netherlands Antilles, Norway, Peru, Philippines, Poland, Portugal, Republic of Georgia, Russia, Scotland, Slovakia, South Africa, Spain, Sweden, Ukraine, United States, Uruguay, and Venezuela. Up to 6,000 new microfilms arrive at the vault each month from camera operations in these countries.

Currently, three dozen digital cameras are in daily use photographing genealogical records in archives around the world. That number will increase to eighty digital cameras by the end of 2005, with dozens of additional digital cameras deployed worldwide in 2006 and 2007.

A New Digital Era in the Vault
Although microfilm has been the preferred preservation medium for genealogical materials since the 1930s, the future focus will be digital images and indexes. The Granite Mountain Records Vault has invested heavily in digital technologies since the first digital imaging projects began in 1998. The vault supports digital record preservation and the distribution of digital images for indexing records from around the world. The vault is developing digital scanning technologies to optimize the conversion of microfilms to digital images. The vault also preserves images produced by digital cameras in the field.

With the approval of records custodians, the Family and Church History Department plans to “open up the vault” by posting digital images of many records collections on the Internet.

Name-indexing projects are underway to make it possible to easily search the vault collection for our ancestors. Images of birth, marriage, and death certificates, censuses, and other valuable family history documents are delivered to thousands of volunteer indexers who type in the names, dates, and places found on genealogical documents, creating indexes of family history records. Each index entry is linked to a digital image of the corresponding original document. The resulting name indexes and digital images will eventually be searchable on the Internet, bringing the contents of the Granite Mountain Records Vault into our homes.

Conclusion
The last two verses of the Old Testament promise that “Elijah the prophet…shall turn the heart of the fathers to the children, and the heart of the children to their fathers.” The Granite Mountain Records Vault helps fulfill this promise, providing the world with access to billions of records about our ancestors so that we may learn their stories and turn our hearts to them.

David S. Ouimette is the information architect of the Family and Church History Department of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

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