HISTORY: Salt Beds near Bedrock, Colorado

By Marie Templeton and the Rimrocker Historical Society

The information for this article was gathered from many sources. The main one being a dissertation by Bob Riddle, entitled, The History of Bedrock.

There is 12,000 feet of salt under the Paradox Valley, so it is no wonder that this resource has been used since ancient times. The La Sal Mountains were named for this resource. The salt springs near Bedrock used to empty 20 tons of salt into the Dolores River each day and this created a problem with the downstream use of the water.

The Indians were the first people to use the salt. They made yearly trips to stock up on this very necessary commodity. After the Utes were removed from Colorado and the white man moved in, this resource has been utilized in many different ways.

The first vanadium mills at Naturita and Uravan used a salt process. The vanadium in the ore was converted to a sodium vanadate, which was soluble in water. The process was not very efficient, but was used for many years. Then in 1937 Harry Gardner built a plant near the river. The plant included solar ponds, a long evaporator pan with a chain drag, and a special evaporator built by Sterns Rogers of Denver. The plant processed dry salt for many years for the USV. There was also a small community where the workers lived. Later salt brine was pumped directly to Uravan and used in their process until the mill shut down.

A Kansas chemical company drilled several holes near Bedrock. They planned to manufacture DDT and other chemicals from the salt and natural gas, which is also present in the shale beds, intermingled with the salt beds, under the valley floor. The cost of electric power in the area made the plan impractical at the time. Tenneco has drilled several holes in the salt for potash. Most of the wells are at or near Bedrock. The cost of transportation prohibits the production of this natural resource. Jensen and Jensen produced salt brine from these wells for a time and most of it went to drilling companies and was used as a drilling solution. Today the salt is pumped back into the ground to prevent it from depositing salt in the Colorado River Drainage. This is causing small earthquakes in the area. Who knows what plan man will come up with in the future for the salt from this area?