In 1936, Herman Knaust, paid $9,000 for a depleted iron ore mine and 100 acres of land so that he could have more space to expand his families business, growing and marketing mushrooms. But by 1950, the mushroom market had declined, so Mr. Knaust decided upon a new business venture—one that would make good use of his mine, which he named “Iron Mountain.”

Mr. Knaust sponsored the relocation to the United States of many Jewish immigrants who had lost their identities because their personal records had been destroyed during the war. At this time, the world was also entangled in the Cold War. Paranoia was at a high point. Mr. Knaust realized that protecting vital information from war and other disasters was of paramount importance and decided to put his mine to good use.

Iron Mountain Atomic Storage, Inc. was founded in 1951 and the first “vaults” inside Iron Mountain and a sales office in the Empire State Building were established. Having a knack for publicity, he persuaded luminaries such as General Douglas MacArthur to visit the Iron Mountain site.

Soon businesses realized the importance of storing their documents and data in a secure location. Iron Mountain’s first customer was East River Savings Bank, which brought microfilm copies of deposit records and duplicate signature cards in armored cars to the new mountain facility for storage.

Iron Mountain soon expanded into a depleted limestone mine close to New York City and opened a site in New England as well. Through further expansions and acquisitions Iron Mountain grew to a $3.0 billion company and services more than 95% of the Fortune 1000 companies.

Bill Gates stores his Corbis photographic collection in a refrigerated cave 220 feet underground and Universal Music Group stores its United States masters with Iron Mountain. The U.S. Office of Personnel Management leases another cavern to store, and process government employee retirement papers and the wills of Princess Diana, Charles Dickens, and Charles Darwin are locked away in secure Iron Mountain vaults as well

Herman’s brother, Warren served in the Corps of Engineers in the United States Army during World War II. Following the war’s end, he became an important part of the family business. Warren was an avid fisherman, alpine skier, and stamp collector. As the company expanded and built secure facilities in locations closer to metropolitan areas the original Iron Mountain location fell more into disuse. Realizing the importance of preserving his personal stamp collection, Warren built a vault there to store it in.

During the 1960s, stamp collecting was at its peak. Many of the same wealthy business owners who used Iron Mountains services had accumulated large and valuable collections as well. Warren would use business meetings with these businessmen and collectors to acquire rare, expensive and one-of-a-kind items for his personal collection. No one knows for sure the value of his collection and few have seen it in person but those that have have described it as “significant and historically important, containing many rarities.

Warren Knaust died of natural causes on Sunday, Sept. 19, at his home in St. Petersburg, Florida at the age of 85. His personal collection, stored in a secure, climate controlled vault in the original Iron Mountain Livingston County, New York location has never been seen since. Only Warren had the access information to the vault and it was not mentioned in his will nor disclosed to anyone. It has been decided that shutting down services, such as fire, electrical and climate control infrastructure, in order to attempt access to the vault could potentially damage other items in linked storage vaults. Brute force methods such as drilling or the use of explosives have also been ruled out.

One can only imagine what may be found in the walls of that vault but it will keep collectors wondering for a long, long time to come.

*Note: This is, of course, fiction. While the history and details of Iron Mountain is true the idea that Warren Knaust was an avid stamp collector and his collection is somehow lost within Iron Mountain was created for entertainment purposes only. It was also to see who, if anyone, actually reads anything I write until the end.