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...
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...
"History records ... that mining rushes produce more paupers than millionaires," [Al Look wrote of the 1950s boom], "This one was no exception."
