It’s time again for the Uravan Reunion Picnic. It will be held at the Uravan Ballpark this coming Saturday, Aug. 26. Folks begin arriving around 11 a.m., and you can stay as long as you like. Lunch is served around noon and is $15, offered by Holy Smokes again this year. Grab a chair and come on out and enjoy visiting with old friends.
I wanted to share a quick history of the town of Uravan with you this week. This is actually an article we have had in the museum for some time. It was written Aug. 25, 1939, for the Montrose Enterprise. It’s an interesting historical perspective from the viewpoint of that year. My mother was 4 years old when the family moved there in 1939. They lived in two tents at the ballpark, which was called Tent Town at that time. My grandpa mined at the Joe Jr. Mine.
“Uravan is the site of mining, milling operations
Nestling in the San Miguel River canyon, where the sun sends down torrid rays in the summer months but evens up with welcome rays of warmth in the wintertime, nestles a town built by men who visioned a mining empire unique in its way to Colorado. It is the town of Uravan, site of mining and milling operations of the U.S. Vanadium Corporation.
Around Uravan is centered almost all of the mining activity in Montrose County. The town is located approximately 115 miles from Montrose, the county seat. It is closer by some 20 miles to Grand Junction, which serves as mail terminus for the camp. It rivals Climax for the production of a single mineral. From Uravan was produced vanadium ore at the rate of 250 tons a day during 1938.
A town of about 700 population, Uravan is the newest big little town in the United States. It has been laid out and built within a space of four years or less. Comfortable homes accommodate the 250 or more workmen and their families. Its monthly payroll runs between $50,000 and $60,000.
In the same way that the U.S. Vanadium Corporation produces and operates all the raw materials necessary for its operation, the town of Uravan provides the necessities of life to its inhabitants. Fuel comes from nearby coal mines in the Nucla section, vegetables and beef may be obtained from the Paradox valley. Staples, however, are trucked from Montrose, Grand Junction and Placerville, the latter being the nearest railroad connection.
During 1938, the company operated on a large scale, producing ore at the approximate rate of 250 tons per day. To do this, about 65 tons of coal daily were required. The coal was mined in a company property 18 miles distant and trucked to the mill and power plant.
Salt is necessary in the refinement of vanadium, and the company owns and operates its own salt workings. More than 500 tons monthly are taken from beds in the Paradox Valley. In order to carry on the multiple operations of U.S. Vanadium, a force of 250 men is employed steadily.
The corporation operates the town. It furnishes power and electricity for its mercantile establishments for the workers’ homes, the community hall, theatre, hospital, churches and school, and for the mine and mill. This power can be generated from any one or all three types of plants maintained by the company — hydroelectric, diesel and steam.
A score of trucks make up the transportation fleet operated by the company. Supplies are trucked in; refined ore hauled out. In order to facilitate transportation, the corporation constructed more than 40 miles of improved highway. At the present time, construction is being pushed on a state road link south of Uravan to U.S. Highway 50.
The future of Uravan and the U.S. Vanadium Corporation is as bright as any industrial star in Colorado. The metal is used as an alloy, and its use is gaining steadily. As for the mine at Uravan, enough ore has been blocked out or diamond-drilled to assure operations for a full century.
Blair Burwell, who directed erection of the mill and supervised building of the town, is general manager of the corporation. He was promoted to the position from that of superintendent …”
Unfortunately, many things transpired to change the future of Uravan. It only lasted a half of a century before being dismantled and buried. Big plans of radium, vanadium and eventually uranium never really carried through. Those of us who lived there can tell stories about what it was like to live and work there, but now that’s all we have … stories and memories.
