diff --git a/ansible/templates/nchs_mortality-params-prod.json.j2 b/ansible/templates/nchs_mortality-params-prod.json.j2
index dbd39598b..4b0d0c4f7 100644
--- a/ansible/templates/nchs_mortality-params-prod.json.j2
+++ b/ansible/templates/nchs_mortality-params-prod.json.j2
@@ -1,6 +1,7 @@
 {
   "common": {
     "daily_export_dir": "./daily_receiving",
+    "backup_dir": "./raw_data_backups",
     "log_filename": "/var/log/indicators/nchs_mortality.log",
     "weekly_export_dir": "/common/covidcast/receiving/nchs-mortality"
   },
diff --git a/nchs_mortality/params.json.template b/nchs_mortality/params.json.template
index ed16c620c..630a2d7ad 100644
--- a/nchs_mortality/params.json.template
+++ b/nchs_mortality/params.json.template
@@ -2,6 +2,7 @@
   "common": {
     "daily_export_dir": "./daily_receiving",
     "weekly_export_dir": "./receiving",
+    "backup_dir": "./raw_data_backups",
     "log_filename": "/var/log/indicators/nchs_mortality.log",
     "log_exceptions": false
   },
diff --git a/nchs_mortality/raw_data_backups/.gitignore b/nchs_mortality/raw_data_backups/.gitignore
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..552154e09
--- /dev/null
+++ b/nchs_mortality/raw_data_backups/.gitignore
@@ -0,0 +1,120 @@
+# You should hard commit a prototype for this file, but we
+# want to avoid accidental adding of API tokens and other
+# private data parameters
+params.json
+
+# Do not commit output files
+receiving/*.csv
+
+# Remove macOS files
+.DS_Store
+
+# virtual environment
+dview/
+
+# Byte-compiled / optimized / DLL files
+__pycache__/
+*.py[cod]
+*$py.class
+
+# C extensions
+*.so
+
+# Distribution / packaging
+coverage.xml
+.Python
+build/
+develop-eggs/
+dist/
+downloads/
+eggs/
+.eggs/
+lib/
+lib64/
+parts/
+sdist/
+var/
+wheels/
+*.egg-info/
+.installed.cfg
+*.egg
+MANIFEST
+
+# PyInstaller
+#  Usually these files are written by a python script from a template
+#  before PyInstaller builds the exe, so as to inject date/other infos into it.
+*.manifest
+*.spec
+
+# Installer logs
+pip-log.txt
+pip-delete-this-directory.txt
+
+# Unit test / coverage reports
+htmlcov/
+.tox/
+.coverage
+.coverage.*
+.cache
+nosetests.xml
+coverage.xml
+*.cover
+.hypothesis/
+.pytest_cache/
+
+# Translations
+*.mo
+*.pot
+
+# Django stuff:
+*.log
+.static_storage/
+.media/
+local_settings.py
+
+# Flask stuff:
+instance/
+.webassets-cache
+
+# Scrapy stuff:
+.scrapy
+
+# Sphinx documentation
+docs/_build/
+
+# PyBuilder
+target/
+
+# Jupyter Notebook
+.ipynb_checkpoints
+
+# pyenv
+.python-version
+
+# celery beat schedule file
+celerybeat-schedule
+
+# SageMath parsed files
+*.sage.py
+
+# Environments
+.env
+.venv
+env/
+venv/
+ENV/
+env.bak/
+venv.bak/
+
+# Spyder project settings
+.spyderproject
+.spyproject
+
+# Rope project settings
+.ropeproject
+
+# mkdocs documentation
+/site
+
+# mypy
+.mypy_cache/