100 Places You Will Never Visit Read Online Free PDF Page B

and within a decade there were more than 100,000 rolls in urgent need of a permanent home. Various sites in Salt Lake City were considered and rejected, until an architect from Little Cottonwood Canyon suggested tunneling into the sheer face of Granite Mountain. Not only would this be an immensely secure location, he argued, but it would provide wonderful temperature regulation—a major concern for all archivists.
    Building works commenced in May 1960, with arched tunnels excavated to a depth of 700 meters (2,300 ft), some 250 meters (820 ft) beneath the peak. Three main corridors into the archive, and a further four cross-tunnels, were constructed. The passages were lined with concrete and steel (and painted in tasteful pastel shades, by all accounts), while six storage chambers were also lined with steel—all at a cost of a reputed US$2 million to the Church. The whole complex today covers an area of 6,000 square meters (65,000 sq ft). Huge reinforced entrance doors, weighing between 9 and 14 tons and reputedly able to withstand a nuclear blast, help to protect the facility from uninvited guests.
    Storage cabinets 3 meters (10 ft) high accommodate the wealth of archival material. The transfer of microfilm began in 1963, and the vault was fully operational by 1965. Its mountain home offers protection not only from nuclear attack but also from natural disasters such as fire and earthquakes. The Church itself maintains that the records are best protected by strictly limiting their exposure to humans. For this reason, public tours are prohibited, with finger marks, dust and clothing fibers all cited as potential threats to the well-being of the vault’s contents. Since 2001, technological developments have allowed the archive to be kept at a permanent temperature of 13°C (55°F) and at 35 percent humidity.
    In 2010, some 300 million of Granite Mountain’s genealogical records were made available online to researchers and members of the public in a major step forward toward openness. Nonetheless, the degree of security maintained at the vault leads many to wonder what other secrets might lie buried deep within its stone.
    One of three imposing main entrances to the Granite Mountain Vault
    12 ADX Florence
    LOCATION Fremont County, Colorado, USA
    NEAREST POPULATION HUB Pueblo, Colorado
    SECRECY OVERVIEW High-security location: the highest-security prison in America.
    Sometimes referred to as the Alcatraz of the Rockies, Colorado’s ADX Florence prison is home to many of America’s most dangerous criminals. Its residents include seasoned terrorists and prisoners too violent to keep in regular facilities. Many of its inmates know that the only way that they will be leaving the penitentiary system is in a box.
    Opened in November 1994 at a cost of some US$60 million, the prison lies off Highway 67 amid the sprawling foothills of the Colorado Rockies. It covers some 15 hectares (37 acres) and lies not far from the small town of Florence. With room for 490 inmates, the prison has a staff numbering almost 350. The land on which it stands was donated by the people of Florence in 1990, principally because the facility promised significant local employment.
    To a large extent, ADX Florence owes its existence to events at a penitentiary in Marion, Illinois on October 22, 1983. On that day, two guards were killed in separate but virtually identical incidents, after the prisoners they were escorting were able to unpick their handcuffs and stab the officers with help from fellow prisoners. The violence highlighted the question of how best to handle dangerous prisoners already facing such stiff punishments that further loss of freedom holds few terrors. One of the answers was the “control unit prison,” of which ADX Florence is a prime example. Here, the most dangerous prisoners in America are kept isolated from their guards and from one another as much as possible. Only around 5 percent of inmates are sent here directly from the