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Calamity, Outlaw, Tenderfoot, Maverick, Flattop, Beaver. All storied mesas in southwest Colorado and also storied places in the history of uranium mining in the area.
Given last week’s column on uranium mill tailings and their impact on Boom(er) Times in Grand Junction, it seems logical to complete the circle with a brief history of the activities from which those pesky sands developed. Some discussion is also appropriate given the fact that there’s been talk of the impact of renewed uranium mining in the area, especially in light of discussion of proposed wilderness areas from Dominguez Canyon and down south along the Dolores River.
Should mining activity pick up, it won’t be the first time uranium has fostered a “boom” in the area.
It began as a World War II “secret” ... one not particularly well kept as the Atomic Energy Commission compound (now the Business Incubator) along the river below the municipal cemetery was built. It was headquarters for a frenzy of activity that encompassed much of the Colorado Plateau and turned paupers into millionaires (and sometimes back into paupers).
Legendary figures such as Moab’s Charlie Steen and Vernon Pick, a sometimes Grand Junction resident, scoured canyons and mesas via airplane or burro, but most often in surplus military jeeps. They sometimes lived in tents or patched together shacks while looking for the rock that would cause a ticking sound on their Geiger counters.
Pick and his wife had less than $300 to their name when he barely survived the journey back to Grand Junction after staking his claims along the Dirty Devil River near Hanksville, Utah, in the 1950s. He later sold the mine for $9 million.
Steen, who prospected between Cisco, Utah, and Dove Creek, had about $375 in mostly borrowed money in his pocket in late 1951. A few months later, he decided to give up but reconsidered when friends loaned more money to keep him prospecting. In July of 1952 he discovered the ore body that became the legendary Mi Vida mine that yielded a reported $61 million worth of high-grade uranium. That same name graced his home in Moab, which later became a restaurant overlooking the town after Steen was forced into bankruptcy.
There are other reminders of the 1950s uranium boom in Grand Junction, not just the former mill site north of the Colorado River in south downtown. If you glance to the north side of the I-70 Business route just east of downtown at 15th Street, check out that cinderblock office building near the Cleartalk tower. Built during the boom, it was the headquarters of the Union Carbide Nuclear Corporation and, with the AEC compound along the Gunnison River and mills in Uravan and near Moab, ground zero for uranium boom activities.
Don’t bother looking for another proposed landmark. Caught up in the frenzy of the boom, developers proposed a six-story modernistic office building for Grand Junction. Not just any multi-story structure, mind you, the Sun Building, in the shape of a parabolic arch, was to be constructed on a huge pivot and float on water and turn during the day so as to always face the sun. Proposed by a couple of Texas oilmen and a Denver architect, it was to be part of an Energy Center that would have included offices and shops and a 200 home subdivision.
As we consider the possibility of a modern uranium boom and the burgeoning activity in natural gas and other extractive industries, we might also consider this admonition from the late Al Look, a noted local historian who wrote about the 1950s boom.
“History records ... that mining rushes produce more paupers than millionaires,” Look wrote. “This one was no exception.”
<i>The 1950s uranium boom is one of several booms Grand Junction native Jim Spehar has survived. Your “Boom(er) Times” memories are welcome at jimspehar@bresnan.net.</i>
Given last week’s column on uranium mill tailings and their impact on Boom(er) Times in Grand Junction, it seems logical to complete the circle with a brief history of the activities from which those pesky sands developed. Some discussion is also appropriate given the fact that there’s been talk of the impact of renewed uranium mining in the area, especially in light of discussion of proposed wilderness areas from Dominguez Canyon and down south along the Dolores River.
Should mining activity pick up, it won’t be the first time uranium has fostered a “boom” in the area.
It began as a World War II “secret” ... one not particularly well kept as the Atomic Energy Commission compound (now the Business Incubator) along the river below the municipal cemetery was built. It was headquarters for a frenzy of activity that encompassed much of the Colorado Plateau and turned paupers into millionaires (and sometimes back into paupers).
Legendary figures such as Moab’s Charlie Steen and Vernon Pick, a sometimes Grand Junction resident, scoured canyons and mesas via airplane or burro, but most often in surplus military jeeps. They sometimes lived in tents or patched together shacks while looking for the rock that would cause a ticking sound on their Geiger counters.
Pick and his wife had less than $300 to their name when he barely survived the journey back to Grand Junction after staking his claims along the Dirty Devil River near Hanksville, Utah, in the 1950s. He later sold the mine for $9 million.
Steen, who prospected between Cisco, Utah, and Dove Creek, had about $375 in mostly borrowed money in his pocket in late 1951. A few months later, he decided to give up but reconsidered when friends loaned more money to keep him prospecting. In July of 1952 he discovered the ore body that became the legendary Mi Vida mine that yielded a reported $61 million worth of high-grade uranium. That same name graced his home in Moab, which later became a restaurant overlooking the town after Steen was forced into bankruptcy.
There are other reminders of the 1950s uranium boom in Grand Junction, not just the former mill site north of the Colorado River in south downtown. If you glance to the north side of the I-70 Business route just east of downtown at 15th Street, check out that cinderblock office building near the Cleartalk tower. Built during the boom, it was the headquarters of the Union Carbide Nuclear Corporation and, with the AEC compound along the Gunnison River and mills in Uravan and near Moab, ground zero for uranium boom activities.
Don’t bother looking for another proposed landmark. Caught up in the frenzy of the boom, developers proposed a six-story modernistic office building for Grand Junction. Not just any multi-story structure, mind you, the Sun Building, in the shape of a parabolic arch, was to be constructed on a huge pivot and float on water and turn during the day so as to always face the sun. Proposed by a couple of Texas oilmen and a Denver architect, it was to be part of an Energy Center that would have included offices and shops and a 200 home subdivision.
As we consider the possibility of a modern uranium boom and the burgeoning activity in natural gas and other extractive industries, we might also consider this admonition from the late Al Look, a noted local historian who wrote about the 1950s boom.
“History records ... that mining rushes produce more paupers than millionaires,” Look wrote. “This one was no exception.”
<i>The 1950s uranium boom is one of several booms Grand Junction native Jim Spehar has survived. Your “Boom(er) Times” memories are welcome at jimspehar@bresnan.net.</i>
