Tucked way in the back on the second floor of The News office is a gold mine with the most unassuming name.

We call it the morgue.

The name may sound haunting, but media morgues are actually pretty common. Traditional morgues consist of files filled with clippings that are organized by writer, subject, or even the name of a company. That allows morgues to be used for research, but makes it hard to locate clippings by date.

At first glance, ours doesn’t look much like a gold mine. In fact, it looks like a storage room. That’s because it is. Outdated equipment is piled in boxes. Boxes of records are stacked on shelves along with copies of old special sections. Even The News’ Christmas decorations are stored there during the non-winter months.

But, there’s more to that room than meets the eye.

The back of the room is where the allure is.

That’s where The News’ archives are kept — in big, heavy, hardbound books. Those books date back to the 1930s and many of them have seen better days.

In some cases, the binding hangs on by a thread or not at all. With others, you feel like you’re handling some ancient parchment because the pages are so brittle.

As a writer, there’s nothing I like more than pulling down a book or two and researching, looking for an old photo or an anecdote from an article that will help make the story I’m working on that much better.

It’s like going on a treasure hunt, and a trip to the morgue seldom disappoints.

I’ve spent countless hours hunting in the pages of those archives. For me, the fun is in digging for the information. Several times, I’ve found information by sheer luck, but, most times, with some persistence, I’ve been able to find loads of information on whatever I’m looking for.

A few examples:

∫ More than a decade ago, I wrote about the 30th anniversary of Alpena High School’s 1981 state championship hockey team and 1982 state runner-up team.

∫ A few years later, The News put together a special section celebrating the 40th season of Alpena Wildcat hockey.

∫ Four years ago, I did a story on the history of The News’ Beat the Geek contest, going back 30-plus years to find out about the history of the contest and the names of all the winners.

Each of those stories and many more would not have been possible without several hours spent in the morgue, pulling down books, pouring over old articles, scanning old photos, and jotting down notes.

More recently, those same dusty books have been opened to help relive the heyday of Alpena High’s best gymnastics teams, find memories of the old Maltz Theater, and, even this week, tell the story of the late military pilot Rodney Chapman.

Those books help on an everyday basis, too, because they’re what we go to to find the Looking Backs you read on the comics page every day.

I’ll be the first to admit that nothing would make my job easier than an easily searchable electronic archive, but I suppose there’s a certain charm that comes with spending time in the morgue with those books.

Those books are a window to the past, reminding of our history and, far from being a storage closet, the morgue is a place where history comes alive every time those pages are turned.

James Andersen can be reached at 989-358-5686 or jandersen@thealpenanews.com. Follow him on Twitter @ja_alpenanews.