History: Western Colorado's Uranium History, by Marie Templeton and the Rimrocker Historical Society

Shortly after the Curies discovered radium in 1898, the yellow material coating the rimrocks in Paradox Valley was found to contain both uranium and vanadium. This new material was named carnotite. The host rock for these deposits is the Salt Wash Member of the Morrison Formation. Radium, found to control the growth of certain cancers, occurs in all uranium ores. Between 1913 and 1922, the carnotite deposits of southwestern Colorado were the leading source of radium. A renewed interest in carnotite occurred in the late 1930s and early 1940s when vanadium was needed to harden steel for armaments. During World War II, the Army Corps of Engineers secretly recovered uranium from the tailings of vanadium mills.

The U.S. Atomic Energy Commission (AEC) uranium procurement program began in 1947. The price schedules, bonuses, and other allowances offered by the AEC created a prospecting boom in the 1950s not seen in any other metal. The program was very successful, but with the needs of the Cold War satisfied, it ended in December 1970. As of 1971, all uranium produced in the United States is for the generation of electric power. Foreign competition and low prices have plagued the industry in recent years and the last mine in western Colorado was shut down in 1998.