Behind a nondescript white garage door on the second level of Spartan Stadium lies a cache of artifacts most students wouldn't fathom while shuffling past on game days.

Aside from a gigantic Sparty head - molded from papier-mâché and gathering dust on a wooden platform - the vast, 100-yard-long space hidden in the stadium has very little to do with football.

The people working there place history above half times, and preservation above punt kicks. They labor daily in the dim, cool atmosphere of the MSU Museum's storage facility, cataloguing the past and working to bring it out of the stadium and into public view.

"If I had a dust allergy, I'm sure I'd be dead," said Val Berryman, the museum's Curator of History and the only person who works full time in the storage facility.

Berryman is quick to acknowledge that the space is far from ideal. The temperature and humidity in the rooms cannot be controlled, and free space is running out.

Still, it could be worse. Because the facility is on the second level of the stadium, there are no problems with mold and very few rodents. The temperature normally remains constant.

After more than 40 years at his position, Berryman has an encyclopedic knowledge of the tens of thousands of items in the storage facility. He can provide dates and detailed information about anything from an odd pair of forceps (used in the early 20th century to pull infants out by the head during birthing) to an x-ray machine from '40s that assured a proper shoe fit, and probably the reproductive sterility of more than a few shoe salesmen.

"I've moved every single item in this place," Berryman said, standing in a long aisle between about 40 artifact-laden stalls he helped build at the outset of his tenure. "I'm just full of useless information."

Within the storage facility's fading yellow walls and stained cement floors are plenty of items that wouldn't inspire interest in most people. There are aging farm plows and old bookcases. There are all manner of bottles and bulbs and other artifacts the museum has deemed worthy of holding on to, but that the average person might not delight in.

But then, there also is a stuffed brown two-headed calf - born in 1943 in Fowler, Mich. - stored on a low-lying shelf in the facility.

Not far away, in a small wooden trunk, is a dwarf calf that, in its days as an attraction on the local fair circuit, was called "the greatest monstrosity ever exhibited." Its slighted, odd appearance prompted carnies to bill the calf as having the "face of a bulldog, with a fully-developed cow's eye, lamb's tail and pig's feet." One flier even cautioned: "Special attention to ladies with children!"

Despite these creatures' obvious value as oddities, Berryman said they are not just freak show relics. The museum can use the animals to provide insight into the world of popular entertainment and early cattle-breeding efforts.

One shelf in the facility is dedicated to quack medical items used during the early 1900s.

Among these items is a machine made to send ultraviolet rays into various bodily orifices. There also is a battery-powered device that gave ailing patients an electric shock - no doubt as uncomfortable as it was unhelpful.

In an enormous room toward the end of the space, the large snout and twisted horns of an African Eland -one of the world's largest antelopes - protrude from beneath a white drop cloth.

Stowed among a bevy of farm equipment is an enormous calculating machine, the late 19th century precursor to today's handheld calculators. Encased in a large wooden base with dust-tainted glass windows, the primitive device reminds Berryman of "something from 'Raiders of the Lost Ark.'"

To assist Berryman in dealing with the enormous collection, several students volunteer weekly at the storage facility. Among them is Dana Thomson, who sat touching up an old clock on a recent Friday afternoon.

Thomson, a history senior, has assisted Berryman since the summer and said she takes a great interest in her work.

"There's so much stuff, I could be here for 50 years and not see it all," she said. "I'd been in the stadium before, but I never realized that this place was here."

Currently, the facility's small staff is focused on preparing an exhibit for MSU's upcoming sesquicentennial celebration. In recent months, they have scoured the museum's collections, looking for items that will illuminate the university's past.

One of the exhibit's "prized possessions" is an old glass bottle that Berryman keeps wrapped in cloth hidden within a cardboard box. Although he concedes that the bottle is of little monetary value, Berryman said historically, it's invaluable.

The container was part of a seed vitality experiment, began in 1879 and conducted by botany Professor William Beal. By placing seeds in bottles like the one Berryman treasures, Beal was able to prove that seeds remain alive for lengthy periods of time.

There are still bottles buried somewhere on campus today, Berryman said, which would make the museum's artifact part of one of the world's longest-running scientific experiments.

Other notable items to be exhibited next year include the aforementioned Sparty head, and old furniture with relevance to MSU's past (former president Robert Shaw's rolltop desk will be featured).

Although Berryman has already amassed an impressive collection of artifacts for the exhibit, he said he's always on the lookout for more noteworthy items.

"Anything from almost any era that tells the story of MSU, we're interested in," he said. "If we can borrow things, that's good, too."

Looking around at the storage area's cluttered shelves, Berryman said he takes pride in the vast array of items in the museum's possession.

"The nice thing about this museum is we can collect anything relating to any program in the university," he said.

People frequently donate items, and in some cases even leave valued possessions to the museum in their wills. Berryman, who has been collecting one thing or another all of his life, said he relishes the job of assessing the importance of donations and cataloguing them.

"You never know what's coming in next," he said. "That's what makes it exciting."