Marty and the 1955 Doc Brown looking up the Hill Valley City Archives
- "Great Scott! It's me. It is true. All of it. It is me that goes back there and gets shot!"
- —Doc to Marty
The City Archives of Hill Valley were located in the basement of the Hill Valley City Hall. It was monitored by a night watchman named Charlie, who had a love for the Old West and Hill Valley history much like Doc Brown did. Charlie would bend the rules for Doc by extending the visiting hours for him, as long as Doc showed him some of the material he came across.
While in the City Archives on the night of November 14, 1955, Doc and Marty McFly desperately searched for information in the file marked "Hill Valley: 1880s" on Doc's possible death and his killer Buford "Mad Dog" Tannen. In the process, they came across a photo of Doc standing in front of the clock to the Hill Valley Courthouse before its completion, thus proving that 1985 Doc was back there.
Doc also found a book with Marty's family ancestors, and pointed out Marty's great grandfather William Sean McFly in the book A History of Hill Valley, 1850-1930.