Inside the mine housing the federal government's retirement records

A mine in Pennsylvania is largely still how the federal government manages the documents of the 100,000 or so retirements from federal service each year.

BOYERS, Pa. — As you ride in a golf cart into the mouth of the Iron Mountain limestone mine, the temperature change is immediately noticeable. The natural climate control provided by the rough-hewn stone walls of the decommissioned mine — a day’s drive from the nation's capital and about an hour outside Pittsburgh — helped make it an ideal site for the federal government to process and store retirement records beginning in 1960. 

Sixty-five years later, when so much is now done online, this mine is largely still how the Office of Personnel Management manages the documents of the 100,000 or so retirements from federal service each year.

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Processing a retirement can take months, with a single missing signature sometimes setting the task back days or weeks. 

“It is still done on paper,” said Alita Haniwalt, an OPM program manager in retirement claims. “I think it becomes overwhelming because there are no two retirements that are the same.”