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SALT LAKE CITY (AP) -- Officials dedicated the new State Archives Building, which houses important state records including the original Utah Constitution.
"These records are irreplaceable," Gov. Olene Walker said. "They go back to (Mormon colonizer) Brigham Young."
The archives occupy a wing of the Rio Grande Railroad Depot, an improvement over their formal location on a cinderblock building at Capitol Hill that will be leveled as part of campus renovations.
To increase the longevity of the collection, a climate-controlled system keeps records under a constant 60 degrees at 40 percent humidity.
The wing features an automatic retrieval system, which uses robotic machines on tracks, allowing for a densely stored, yet rapidly accessible collection of state documents, said project architect Allen Roberts.
The Rio Grande Railroad Depot is being renovated in a $7 million state-funded project.
(Copyright 2004 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
