Category: Archives

• The Mormon Vaults in the Mountains

  This theory claimed that the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints built secure mountain vaults not only to preserve genealogical records, but to conceal politically sensitive historical material, including the alleged “real history” of the American Civil War. In the strongest version, the vaults were portrayed as doomsday shelters for documents that would overturn accepted national history if broadly released. The documented foundation beneath the theory is real: the Church did build the Granite Mountain Records Vault in 1965 inside a mountain near Salt Lake City, and the facility holds a vast collection of genealogical and historical microfilms, including many Civil War-related records preserved through FamilySearch catalog holdings. The conspiracy claim extends that real archival mission into a hidden-history program.

• The Iron Mountain Vaults

  This theory claimed that governments and allied institutions were removing authentic historical records from public circulation and storing them in underground vaults, where the real past could be selectively controlled. In its modern form, the story attached itself to the existence of subterranean archival and records-storage complexes, especially those associated with Iron Mountain and later underground federal records centers. The theory did not rest on a fictional setting; underground storage sites genuinely existed and were advertised as safer, more secure environments for preservation. The conspiratorial leap was to recast preservation as concealment, and records management as a program for burying inconvenient history.