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Uravan, Colorado | |
---|---|
Coordinates: 38°22′06″N108°44′11″W / 38.36833°N 108.73639°W | |
Country | United States |
State | Colorado |
County | Montrose |
Elevation | 4,990 ft (1,520 m) |
Population (2010) | |
• Total | 0 |
Time zone | UTC-7 (Mountain (MST)) |
• Summer (DST) | UTC-6 (MDT) |
GNIS feature ID | 203153 [1] |
Uravan (a contraction of uranium/vanadium [2] ) is a former uranium mining town [3] in western Montrose County, Colorado, United States, which still appears on some maps. The town was a company town established by U. S. Vanadium Corporation in 1936 to extract the rich vanadium ore in the region. As a byproduct of vanadium extraction, small amounts of uranium were also produced, at the time mostly used as a yellow pigment for ceramics.
The town was located approximately 90 miles (140 km) south-southwest of Grand Junction along the San Miguel River. At one time, over 800 people lived in Uravan, and the town housed a school, a trading center (store), medical facilities, tennis courts, a recreation center, and a pool. The school and some other facilities remained operational until at least 1983; however, Uravan was shut down by mid-1985, and no traces of its former buildings remain. Uravan is now an uninhabited, undeveloped Superfund site.
There are several prehistoric sites near Uravan on the Colorado State Register of Historic Properties: [4]
In 1885, placer gold was discovered in a tributary of the San Miguel River, Mesa Creek, nine miles from Nucla, Colorado. The Montrose Placer Mining Company constructed the Hanging Flume on the east wall of Dolores River Canyon. [5] : 54–56
During World War II, Uravan provided part of the uranium needed by the Manhattan Project for the first atomic bomb. Because of wartime secrecy the Manhattan Project would only publicly admit to purchasing the vanadium, and did not pay the uranium miners for the uranium ore (in a much later lawsuit, many miners were able to reclaim lost profits from the U.S. government).
In the beginning of the Cold War, to ensure adequate supplies of uranium for national defense, the United States Congress passed the U.S. Atomic Energy Act of 1946, creating the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission (AEC) which had the power to withdraw prospective uranium mining land from public purchase, and also to manipulate the price of uranium to meet national needs. By setting a high price for uranium ore, the AEC created a uranium "boom" in the early 1950s, which attracted many prospectors to the Four Corners region of the country. Uravan's fortunes grew as it became one of the major "yellowcake boomtowns" in the region.
American military requirements of uranium declined in the 1960s, and the government completed its uranium procurement program by the end of 1970. Simultaneously, a new market emerged: commercial nuclear power plants. However, the U.S. domestic uranium mining industry collapsed in the late 1970s and early 1980s, due to lack of new nuclear power plants, and to low-price uranium imported from Canada.
The town had been in decline for several years; the decision was made to close Uravan in 1985 and commence a large-scale clean-up of the entire site. Environmental cleanup of the site commenced in 1986 and was completed in 2008. [6] All the buildings have been removed and the site regraded and replanted, about 800 inhabitants had to move. [7] All that remains is a turnoff and interpretive sign along State Highway 141. Former residents of Uravan raised funds to preserve a boarding house and recreation center on the old town site, but Dow Chemical, which acquired Union Carbide, the owner of the Uravan mill, in 1999, burned them down in 2007 due to fears of radiative contamination. [8]
On May 6, 2012, the Montrose County Board of County Commissioners signed the Omnibus Agreement with Dow Chemical, giving them three tracts of land: Ballpark Parcel #1, a 133-acre (54 ha) plot between Hwy. 141 and the San Miguel River; Ballpark Parcel #2, approximately ten acres (4.0 ha) northwest of the first parcel; and the townsite property, located between County Roads EE22 and Y11. [9]
Montrose County agreed to accept this property on behalf of the Rimrocker Historical Society of Western Montrose County, which has worked since 1990 to preserve and interpret the history of Uravan. The Rimrocker Historical Society and Montrose County entered into a long-term lease on May 1, 2013 for a 17-acre (6.9 ha) section of Ballpark parcel #1, with the intention of building a museum and campground on the property.
The Rimrocker Historical Society of Western Montrose County hosts the annual Uranium History Celebration and Reunion Picnic at Historic Uravan, Colorado every August. Over 1,000 people attended the 100th anniversary of the original Joe Jr. Mill in 2012.
The United States Atomic Energy Commission (AEC) was an agency of the United States government established after World War II by the U.S. Congress to foster and control the peacetime development of atomic science and technology. President Harry S. Truman signed the McMahon/Atomic Energy Act on August 1, 1946, transferring the control of atomic energy from military to civilian hands, effective on January 1, 1947. This shift gave the members of the AEC complete control of the plants, laboratories, equipment, and personnel assembled during the war to produce the atomic bomb.
San Miguel County is a county located in the U.S. state of Colorado. As of the 2020 census, the population was 8,072. The county seat is Telluride. The county is named for the San Miguel River.
Montrose County is a county located in the U.S. state of Colorado. As of the 2020 census, the population was 42,679. The county seat is Montrose, for which the county is named.
Nucla is a statutory town in Montrose County, Colorado, United States. The population was 585 as of the 2020 census, down from 711 in 2010. Its name comes from the town founders' intent that it serve as a "nucleus" for the surrounding farms and mines, although it has since come to be associated with the growth of uranium mining in the region.
Carnotite is a potassium uranium vanadate radioactive mineral with chemical formula K2(UO2)2(VO4)2·3H2O. The water content can vary and small amounts of calcium, barium, magnesium, iron, and sodium are often present.
The San Miguel River is a tributary of the Dolores River, approximately 81 miles (130 km) long, in southwestern Colorado in the United States. It rises in the San Juan Mountains southeast of Telluride and flows northwest, along the southern slope of the Uncompahgre Plateau, past the towns of Placerville and Nucla and joins the Dolores in western Montrose County approximately 15 miles (24 km) east of the state line with Utah.
Charles Augustus Steen was a geologist who made and lost a fortune after discovering a rich uranium deposit in Utah during the uranium boom of the early 1950s.
Placerville is a census-designated place (CDP) and post office in and governed by San Miguel County, Colorado, United States. The Placerville post office has the ZIP Code 81430. At the United States Census 2020, the population of the Placerville CDP was 362.
Uranium mining in the United States produced 224,331 pounds (101.8 tonnes) of U3O8 in 2023, 15% of the 2018 production of 1,447,945 pounds (656.8 tonnes) of U3O8. The 2023 production represents 0.4% of the uranium fuel requirements of the US's nuclear power reactors for the year. Production came from five in-situ leaching plants, four in Wyoming (Nichols Ranch ISR Project, Lance Project, Lost Creek Project, and Smith Ranch-Highland Operation) and one in Nebraska (Crowe Butte Operation); and from the White Mesa conventional mill in Utah.
Uranium mining in Colorado, United States, goes back to 1872, when pitchblende ore was taken from gold mines near Central City, Colorado. The Colorado uranium industry has seen booms and busts, but continues to this day. Not counting byproduct uranium from phosphate, Colorado is considered to have the third largest uranium reserves of any US state, behind Wyoming and New Mexico.
Uranium mining in Utah, a state of the United States, has a history going back more than 100 years. Uranium mining started as a byproduct of vanadium mining about 1900, became a byproduct of radium mining about 1910, then back to a byproduct of vanadium when the radium price fell in the 1920s. Utah saw a uranium boom in the late 1940s and early 1950s, but uranium mining declined in the 1980s. Since 2001 there has been a revival of interest in uranium mining, as a result of higher uranium prices.
The relationship between uranium mining and the Navajo people began in 1944 in northeastern Arizona, northwestern New Mexico, and southeastern Utah.
Climax Uranium Mill is a decommissioned uranium mill near Grand Junction, CO.
The Paradox Trail is a hiking and mountain biking trail located in western Montrose County, Colorado, United States, which traverses a route of over 118 miles (190 km) through various terrain. The trail was rerouted 17 miles due to a trespass issue near the Tabeguache area north of Nucla in 2017. The trail links with two other long-distance trails in the region: the Tabeguache Trail to the east on the Uncompahgre Plateau and the Kokopelli Trail to the west in the La Sal Mountains of Utah. These three trails together form the "Grand Loop", a grueling 360-mile (580 km) course.
The world's largest producer of uranium is Kazakhstan, which in 2019 produced 43% of the world's mining output. Canada was the next largest producer with a 13% share, followed by Australia with 12%. Uranium has been mined in every continent except Antarctica.
Colorado mining history is a chronology of precious metal mining, fuel extraction, building material quarrying, and rare earth mining.
Paramontroseite (V4+O2) is a relatively rare orthorhombic vanadium oxide mineral in the Ramsdellite Group. Synthetic paramontroseite may have applications in medicine, batteries and electronics.
A yellowcake boomtown also known as a uranium boomtown, is a town or community that rapidly increases in population and economics due to the discovery of uranium ore-bearing minerals, and the development of uranium mining, milling or enrichment activities. After these activities cease, the town "goes bust" and the population decreases rapidly.
The Unaweep Tabeguache Scenic Byway is a 133-mile (214 km) Colorado Scenic and Historic Byway located in Mesa, Montrose, and San Miguel counties, Colorado, USA. The byway explores the Colorado Plateau canyon country of far western Colorado.
Piñon was a town in Montrose County, Colorado, United States. The town was 58 miles (93 km) south of Grand Junction, Colorado, along the San Miguel River and was created as a colony for the Colorado Cooperative Company. During the height of mining from 1902 to 1904, Piñon was the second largest town in Montrose County. The colony was one of several utopian communities that were established in Colorado during the late 19th century.