Welcome to the West End!
"Many towns, one community."
The West End is a region that comprises several towns, including Nucla, Naurita, Bedrock, Redvale, Paradox, and Norwood, located in Montrose and San Miguel counties. The area has a proud history of ranching and mining, with the surrounding mountains offering endless recreational opportunities like hiking, mountain biking, hunting, camping, fishing, and more. Visitors can also enjoy a day in the snow by visiting Telluride and Mountain Village.
The San Juan, La Sal, and Uncompahgre mountain ranges surround the area, providing vast open land and several lakes for outdoor activities. Additionally, visitors can take a scenic drive and appreciate the beautiful farmland.
Southwest Colorado's uranium mining began way back in 1898 when a miner dug ten tons of yellow ore that tested high in uranium and vanadium at Roc Creek in Montrose County, Colorado. The Uravan mineral belt, a 70-mile-long arcuate zone of uranium-vanadium deposits in San Miguel, Montrose, and Mesa counties, Colorado, and Grand County, Utah, was the area that produced the most uranium in the United States in the early 20th century. The mineral belt includes the Slick Rock, Gypsum Valley, Uravan, and Gateway mining districts.
Although radium was discovered in 1898, the radium content of carnotite was not known. Carnotite was suspected to contain radium as early as 1903, and the Marie Curie laboratory in Paris confirmed the radium content of carnotite in 1911. The newly discovered medical applications made radium worth $100 per milligram, making the radium in the carnotite ore worth much more than the vanadium or uranium.
Once carnotite was known to contain radium, prospectors rushed to the Colorado Plateau of southwest Colorado and adjacent southeast Utah, and found carnotite-bearing sandstones of the Jurassic Morrison Formation in Mesa, Montrose, and San Miguel counties in Colorado. The Standard Chemical Company built a radium processing plant in Montrose County by 1913, which became the world's largest supplier of radium. The Uravan mineral belt of Colorado and Utah supplied approximately half the world's radium from 1910 to 1922, and vanadium and uranium were byproducts.
Mining revived in 1935 when the price of vanadium rose, and after World War II, the government stockpiled uranium for nuclear weapons programs, leading to a significant boom in the industry. The Topaz Mine, part of the Sunday Complex near Uravan, Colorado, was the last producing uranium mine in the state, which was closed down on March 18, 2009, by then-owner Denison Mines due to depressed uranium prices.
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Check out these websites for more on the West End!
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