Show r Balsley Dean of Uranium Men Has Been in Business 45 Years Dean of Moab's uranium men though hes he's never staked a claim claimon on that title is Howard W W. Dal Dais Bals- Icy ley leA A good share of this towns town's uranium people admittedly knew little about the atomic ore ort until three or four years ago Hut But Balsley Balsley Bals ley has been an active figure I In d development eve lop men t of ot southeast southeast- southeastern ern Utah's vanadium uranium vanadium In In- Industry Industry for 45 years Balsley came west from PennsylvanIa Penn Penn- sylvanIa and settled In Moab i In 1909 Some months later he wen went to work for the U U. U S S. S forest serIce service service ser ser ser- vice Ice h here and stayed with th the forest ore office rel ce for nine years But through most of ot that time lime he was wall also prospecting and otherwise other wise learning earning more about the business that eventually was to bring Moab world-wide world fame He lie worked with or knew such titanium uranIum titan uran- ium pioneers as Al Rogers Felix Murphy Jim Wade Charles Ins Mis MI Conkie k p Pete te Shumway R R. R i L L. Winbourn and the late Frank Silvey Only market for uranium in those early years were the agents of Madame Curie Curle who bought car car- from the Colorado Plateau for its radium content Twenty per cent ore then brought 5 a pound Balsley recalls re re- calls There was no market at atall atall atall all for low grade The prospectors of those years years years' had no Geiger counters they could only search for outcrops then explore the outcrops in hope of finding a high-grade high petrified log lOR Di Discovery y of pitchblende in Africa after World War I halted mining for a time Balsley Baisley Balsley Bals Bals- ley then helped build up a vanadium vanadium van van- adlum market until struck a mountain of mined easily-mined vanadIum vanadium van van- adlum in Peru Ore-buying Ore on the Colorado Plateau Plateau Pla Pla- today is a carefully regulates business somewhat enmeshed In hi government red But Dut then ther was a period during the depres depression depression sion when Howard Balsley served serve AS a one man ore buying sta tion If It It hadn't been for tor Balsley some of ot Moab's older mining milies say a number of eople would have gone tone hungry at times during the Balsley bought bouhl ore ore rc from rom 1931 to 1945 A for th the Vitro Chemical Co of Pittsburgh The atom alom bomb hadn't t been heard of at that time Vitro used uranium in making ceramic colors as the Indians had used it to make war paint for hundreds of ot years Vitro required ore with 15 percent per percent percent cent uranium content and 5 per percent percent percent cent vanadium Balsley bought ore are by the sack sac blending lower grade rock with high grade grade to reach each the required percentage and sh shipped It to Pittsburgh In ton 50 carloads Ore assaying 1 per cent uran turan- lum fum um and 4 per cent vanadium then hen brought 68 60 cents a pound sacked and delivered Balsley ha had warehouses at Grand Junction Montrose Cisco Thompson and aiu as well as Moab In that year 11 period his records re- re cords show Balsley bought more than han a million dollars worth of ore re from more than individuals or companies Balsley's interest Was not confined con con- fined to uranium lIe He was also aware ware of the Moab areas area's oil pos pos- A well drilled in the Salt valley in the was called the he Balsley No 1 1 Balsley was around when theold the thed theold old d Klondike well was drilled on Mile Ten Wash in 1910 12 The rig rigas was as hauled up from Bluff with a six horse team he recalls TenMile Ten Ten- Mile lile Wash wasn't the exact site that had been picked for the test but there the wagon I broke roke down So o there the hole was drilled |