Deep in the heartland and hours from the Midwest’s largest business sector, a quiet 3,500-acre stretch of country along the Mississippi River may become home to the Chicago area’s most valued information.

Savanna, Ill., 159 miles from Chicago with a population of 3,200, has small town charm that attracts weekenders who want to get away from the big city for a respite. It’s also become a choice place for Chicago-area residents purchasing second homes.

Soon, however, it may not be attracting only small town enthusiasts but also giant corporations seeking to utilize the unique product that the area offers.

The Savanna Army Depot, officially closed in 2000 under the Base Realignment and Closure process, was originally used as a munitions hold for the nearby Rock Island Arsenal. As the army moved out certain portions of the base were designated for private commercial use. The army left behind hundreds of munitions bunkers that were too confining to hold a truck and thus could not be used for cold storage.

But they could withstand a direct hit from a 500-lb. bomb.

While this may not be a prerequisite for a great business venture, a few entrepreneurs saw promise.

“When the bunkers were left behind most people didn’t think that there was any value to them, but we have learned recently that there is a market for sensitive data storage,” said Tom Schlosser, CFO of Cyber Vault Technologies, Inc. in Palos Heights. “These bunkers are made of a foot and a half of reinforced concrete and come equipped with double plate steel doors.”

In other words, they are ideal for keeping important technical data secure, said Schlosser.

Cyber Vault has marketed the product under the name “Bunker Town” and has more than 400 munitions bunkers at its disposal.

It is the kind of insurance that a business would hope that it never have to use—it would almost definitely signal a catastrophic event—but as cities like New York and New Orleans have learned in the last six years, worst case scenarios can become reality.

“We have learned in the past with 9/11 and (Hurricane) Katrina that we need to not only have a secondary backup area for sensitive data, but that it should be at least 100 miles from the major population center,” said Schlosser.

Schlosser said while the 100-mile limit is not a hard and fast number, it should be a good distance from the region’s major population area.

“If you store your backup information in another building across town that may not be enough,” he said. “Companies in New Orleans lost a lot of data that they are still recovering from.”

The dual catastrophes of 9/11 and Katrina have prompted businesses to recognize the importance of backup data storage and the need for it to be in a secure location.

“We are in the sweet-spot of this industry,” said Schlosser. “We offer a unique product in this industry and there are a lot of potential clients. The federal government is looking to go paperless by 2010, which is staggering to think about, but just think of how many documents will have to be scanned and then backed-up.”

The company is still new and has only been fully operational for one month, but now that its fiber optics have been laid and it is completely connected to Chicago, Schlosser expects more companies to come calling.

Right now the firm only has two bunkers occupied by electronic information. The bunkers can hold “100 racks of data,” which could accommodate multiple smaller companies or one large company. A major corporation may in fact invest in multiple bunkers to house all its sensitive data.

The area is also protected by security teams and entrance to the bunkers requires bio-metric security-card technology.

While there are other data-storage firms, Schlosser said that the location and the munitions bunkers make his firm unique, and, in comparison Cyber Vault should be affordably priced.

“Land is not as expensive out here,” he said. “We are not paying as much for rent as some firms in the city do. It’s safe to say that we should be under-priced for the industry.”

The firm currently has nine employees, but it is about to expand as a merger will soon take place with two other firms, said Schlosser. The merger has not been officially announced, but the new company will be called Terra Firma and it will be a “one-stop-shop” for data storage needs.

“When the merger is complete we will have A-Z business continuity,” said Schlosser. “We will be able to efficiently do document management, scanning, retrieval and storage.”