It’s the most secure place on earth, the
place were fortune 500 companies and the world’s wealthiest individuals keep their most precious
treasures. With vaults reaching deep under the earth,
only one place can keep the most important items in the world safe from nuclear holocaust. The name is Iron Mountain, and it’s on the
lips of every person who has ever needed to hide a priceless treasure far away from thieves. In business since 1951, it specializes in
records management, data backup and recovery, and occasionally destruction of sensitive
material. Not only is this company popular enough to
be a member of the S&P 500 stock index, but virtually every powerful company in the world
uses their service. As of 2020, a full 95% of Fortune 1000 companies
employ Iron Mountain for storage and management of their most secure information. But its beginnings were almost shockingly
humble. Herman Knaust was exploring Livingston, New
York for the perfect place for his enterprise - the biggest Mushroom farm in the area. An abandoned iron ore mine gave him the land
he needed to expand, and Iron Mountain was born for only $9000. But not long after his purchase, the mushroom
market changed, and Knaust would have to shift quickly if he didn’t want to take a bath
on his investment. The good news was, his new purchase gave him
a lot of land to explore - not just above ground, but under it. Times were tense, and security was money. It was the height of the Cold War, and everyone
was looking to the sky with fear of nuclear war. Businesses were looking to store their key
documents underground. Knaust created a network of underground vaults
to store the most secret and valuable items for businesses, starting with microfilm copies
of deposit records for banks. While Knaust went bankrupt in the 1970s and
his company was acquired, new owner Vincent J. Ryan had big plans for Iron Mountain. They expanded outside of New York, acquired
one data and security company after another, and now operate around the world in sites
that used to be everything from strip malls to missile storage batteries. But Iron Mountain is known most for one thing. Welcome to the most secure place in the world. When you talk about security, most people
think about Fort Knox - where the government stores over half the country’s gold reserves. And then there’s Area 51, the highly classified
government facility that may contain...well, they’re not telling, no matter how many
people plan to storm the gates. But those are only protected by the government. Iron Mountain’s facility in Boyers, Pennsylvania
has a different clientele - just about every rich person in the country who needs their
most valuable possessions kept safe. So what makes this powerhouse site so secure? You can start with the location. A former limestone mine, it’s spread out
over 1,000 acres and was initially used as a storage facility by US Steel to keep its
records safe in the event of a nuclear strike. It operated as the National Storage Company
until it was bought by Iron Mountain in 1998 - and its transformation began into a one-of-a-kind
site. While many storage facilities are little more
than tightly guarded sheds or nuclear bunkers, Iron Mountain leaves nothing to chance - starting
with the fact that some of its treasures are kept as much as twenty-two stories into the
Earth. Good luck getting down there without the right
clearance. But that’s only the start of getting into
this site. The security starts long before you get into
the compound. As you enter the company’s property, only
accessible by car, you’ll be herded into gate-lined lanes and thoroughly searched. You’ve probably only encountered security
like this in your car if you’ve crossed over a national border. But things are about to get weirder. You drive forward - and the road abruptly
ends, leading you right into a rock wall at the bottom of a steep cliff. The cliff face has a massive tunnel, with
the entrance sealed off by a huge sliding gate guarded by armed security. It almost looks like the entrance to a supervillain
lair or sci-fi fortress. But if you have the clearance to get in, the
secrets within are worth the security. Iron Mountain isn’t one storage facility
- it’s countless storage facilities in the largest private storage center in the world. Each one guarded by red steel doors, the massive
climate-controlled facility contains some of the biggest secrets in the business world. Celebrities both living and dead, and some
of the most powerful tech companies in the world, all use Iron Mountain’s Pennsylvania
facility to keep their secrets - and we only know a small percentage of the secrets within. After all, that’s kind of the point of storing
something in the most secure place in the world. But hey, they let us in, so let’s take a
little tour. Are you a film buff? Then you should rest easy that Iron Mountain
had some of the biggest treasures in film history under lock and key. They stored over 1800 cans of nitrate film
before they were collected by the Academy Film Archive, where they’re now stored in
the world’s largest collection. These films were likely preserved from the
early days of film, and while many classic films have been lost forever due to damage
or other hazards, these are sealed away as a testament to the earliest days of the art
form. But that’s not the only art form Iron Mountain
is keeping safe. Master recordings are the ultimate treasure
in music, and the three biggest music studios around all chose the same place to store them. Universal, Sony, and Warner keep their masters
under lock and key, with Universal choosing the Butler facility. They also have the original recordings of
Frank Sinatra, proving Ol’ Blue Eyes’ heirs know the value of his music. But every time one of these recordings is
checked out, there’s a risk it could be lost - which is why Iron Mountain has professional
recording studios in its facilities, meaning the companies can work with them without ever
taking them out of their secure base. But some celebrities have found other uses
for Iron Mountain. What do Princess Diana, Charles Dickens, and
Charles Darwin all have in common? The wills of these three late legends are
all stored in Iron Mountain facilities. Bill Gates, one of the richest men in the
world, owns a massive photographic collection through his Corbis corporation that specializes
in licensing and digitizing artwork. The company purchased the Bettmann Archive,
which contains over sixteen million images - the original copies of which are stored
in the Pennsylvania facility in a refrigerated cave. But it’s not the only use Bill Gates and
other billionaires have for Iron Mountain. One of the most important rooms in Iron Mountain’s
Boyers facility is twenty-two stories down, with the unassuming name Room 48. One of the facility’s newer additions, it
specializes in creating a more climate-friendly environment for data centers. Many major corporations have committed to
tackling climate change, and computers eat a lot of energy. Room 48’s geothermal energy systems use
the surrounding environment to create a closed-loop piping system that naturally cools the room,
and they’re researching ways to use the mine’s water directly to provide energy
for the data center. And that’s good, because Iron Mountain processes
a LOT of data. Not only do top corporations use Iron Mountain’s
Boyers facility to store copies of their data - likely including records of customer data
that they’ve promised to safeguard - but the US government has even gotten in on the
game. While many government documents are kept under
lock and key in federal facilities like Fort Knox, the government has outsourced the papers
on government employee retirement accounts to Iron Mountain, where the US Office of Personnel
Management leases a cavern. And that’s likely just scratching the surface. Hm, maybe you’ll find the secrets to the
Colonel’s 11 herbs and spices down there. So how does Iron Mountain keep all these secrets
safe? There are more levels of security than you
can shake a stick at. In fact, if you did shake a stick at them,
you’d probably be tackled by the armed guards who patrol the facility around the clock. Companies can choose shared vaults, or register
a private vault where no one gets in or out without their approval. Many of the items in Iron Mountain are fragile
and one wrong move could make them crumble into dust, so every vault in the facility
has its temperature and humidity levels carefully controlled - both for temporary and long-term
storage. While it’s not easy to get in, the company
is in regular contact with the property owners, and all files can be shipped quickly on request
or converted to digital formats for use while the originals stay safe. And that’s not mentioning Iron Mountain’s
top security feature - its geography. Built into the side of a cliff and heading
straight down into the earth, Iron Mountain is protected from most natural disasters ranging
from floods to hurricanes and even earthquakes. Once the gate is sealed, it’s highly unlikely
anyone would be able to break in, and even if they did manage to enter the facility,
every vault presents its own challenging security measures and is equipped with alarms that
alert the on-site security and record the intruders. And that’s assuming they even get past the
security fencing and crash barriers surrounding the cliff. It’s no surprise that the facility gets
the Department of Justice’s highest security rating. So is Iron Mountain the foolproof answer to
your security needs? Well...not quite. While the security on the hard copies stored
inside the Butler facility is essentially foolproof, the company’s data storage history
has a slightly spottier record. The company has a history of losing or misplacing
files, both in fires at facilities and in transit. Most famously, Time Warner loaded unencrypted
data on 600,000 employees into an Iron Mountain van, and somewhere along the way, the files
just disappeared. That led the company to start encrypting its
tapes. Other incidents involved fires in London and
Buenos Aires, some set intentionally. While the top security at the vaults is all
it’s hyped up to be, if you need your files transported between sites, you may be taking
a risk. So how do you get into an Iron Mountain facility
anyway? Well, it’s not exactly open for tourism. A camera crew was allowed in briefly in 2015
and got a look at some exclusive photos, including rarely-seen images of Albert Einstein and
Rosa Parks, but the storage facility has fifteen vaults - each the size of a big-box store
- and is still expanding, so they barely got to scratch the surface of the massive facility. And even if you’re storing something in
there, the odds are you’ll only get access to your vault - not the rest of them. The people who get to see the most of the
Bowers facility are its tirelessly working technicians and security who keep the place
operating. So there is an opening - but expect to go
through a security vetting process that rivals the ones you experience when applying to the
FBI, followed by a long time working your way up in the ranks of Iron Mountain before
you’re trusted with access to their top facility. But what does it take to get your family treasure
inside that Bowers facility? That depends on what you’re looking to store. Data storage at Iron Mountain can be very
reasonable, starting with only $12 a year for a single LTO-8 tape of 12 terabytes of
compressed data. But if you’re looking for hard storage,
the price is going to be a lot higher. You’ll be charged by cubic foot, with additional
fees for every feature you need - starting with transfer, climate control, and any labor
involved. Multiply that by the length of the stay, and
while the initial numbers may look small, it’ll add up quickly. For shared vaults and items that only need
a small space, this can be affordable, but if you want a private vault - well, there’s
a reason why the Fortune 500 likes this company so much - they can afford it. And so far, it’s proven to be worth the
investment. For more on one of the most closely guarded
places in the world, check out “Why No One Can Break Into the Most Secure Place in the
World (Fort Knox)”, or watch this video instead.
