The Utah Genealogical Society's collection of microfilms is preserved in a special place known as "the Granite Mountains."
Secured in a stone catacomb within the side of a mountain located in Utah's Little Cottonwood Canyon, the Records Vaults on Granite Mountain of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints hold one of the largest collections of filmed genealogical records. About 60 meters above the canyon path, the row of giant portals and the concrete building protruding from the solid granite, are just a sample of what lies behind the rock.
A network of tunnels that reach about 210 meters inland from the mountain, stores more than 2.3 million rolls of microfilm, the equivalent of about 6 million volumes of 300 pages each. It also houses 180,000 sets of microfiche, which contain approximately 900 images each. "There is no other facility like this," says Wayne Metcalfe, director of Support and Outside Services in the Department of Church and Family History. "No other organization has anything that compares to it."
