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Show I i - . 1. , - ';'"''''-- ?' ' .v.. . ... 4 V, v - , " V C - .4- V' ;" - ' - ' , MmJ-1mmii m !....,..-.-. , . ' . " i - ... -. ...... 1 y. . . - . ; - ';, g"". - "x ' -: . .;- ' i f ' M - ' "J - . ' ' . -r,-??v :. - . ; v. '.;':n " I, - . . .:. Steens original shaft in the Mi Vida where he first found largest deposit of uranium in the world and revolutionized theories on sizes of uranium ore its share of explosive excitement excite-ment and spurts of sudden growth. More than once has Moab been almost a ghost town, only to blossom forth again like an unknown spring flower. But when Charles A. Steen , bodies available. Ralph Dunn of Moab points. "out geological features within the shaft to Jules and Dave Hansel of Iowa. -' Stee&fs Big ill Vidd Discovery-.Started Discovery-.Started Jlrei Uranium ton By Dick Wilson Moab, the atomic boom fi town, can almost be said to 'iVave more unique stories ' about its history, surround-ings surround-ings and people than any other town of comparable Size. And it's had more than i . - .'; -"- ! ' - . -.,'.-,?.' f V'---, ... ..-o:- i r : .- ' . .'' V; . i ' . v .( . ; ' . ' . : ! v , - - 7 """" w . ' ' Ralph Dunn, President of CDS Mining Min-ing Company led Iowa visitors. Jules Hansel and son, Dave, h.to original workings of Sheen's Mi Vida rags-to- hit the country just 16 years ago things began popping in Moab to such an extent that the sleepy, little town will never be the same again. The Slecn story is probably Mo-ab's Mo-ab's most famous story, and ' has been well told in thous- riehes discovery. Ralph Dunn of Moab is presently working uranium oiv in tunnels adjacent to the Mi Vida. ands of ' ways throughout the world. It is a story of wonder, won-der, a man and his family against the wilderness to seek out a fortune, and it ended in the amazing discovery of " the Mi Vida Mine, the wealth of which staggered even those to whom wealth was an everyday occurance. Starts the Ball Rolling I didn't know Charlie Steen ' personally but we who are residents must realize that it is he we must thank for starting the ball rolling to make our little village as progressive pro-gressive as it is. So lest our sons and daughters forgef let's take time to review the events that caused Moab to be "heard around the world." "Steen's Folly" they "calle? it here locally. Charles A. Steen had received his degree in geology at West Texas College Col-lege of Mines at El Paso. A while later he came to the Canyonlands country with visions vi-sions of striking it rich. His wife, I'm told, was his inspiration and mainstay. Steen's mother, Mrs. Rosalie Shumaker, helped Steen financially fin-ancially by selling her horn? and part of the money bought a second hand drilling rig for S!)jO. A dilapidated old jeep was Steen's first transportation when he arrived in the early '5"'s. but eventually he found it necessary to do much of his prospecting on foot. Tin's saved a little on gas. The Cisco Kid Some of Steen's early prospecting pros-pecting was done in the Yellow Yel-low Cat and Cisco area. It was from his stay in and around ar-ound Cisco that he received another not-tno-fancy title "The Cisco Kid." The family lived first in a tent which was a mite crowded crowd-ed with four growing boys. Later Steen moved his brood into a small trailer which soon sprung a few leaks. Discouragement Dis-couragement and frustration were always in Steen's presence pres-ence as he thought about his family's health and. security. But M. L, endured and encouraged en-couraged her. ' husband to keep searching. Things got rougher. Illegal venison and beans became a part of the daily menu. When the baby's supply of concentrated concen-trated milk was exhausted, M. L. had to provide the only thing left in the trailer sweetened tea. Steen was down to 35 cents in change with a $300 grocery groc-ery bill and a similar amount of gasoline debts lingering over his weary prospecting brow. He then was investigating an area south of Moab that had already been explored by the major companies and found barren. But there and then it was that the dream came true. Local folks forgot the bad names and began to call" him Mr. Steen. A Big Strike The grayish - looking rock that he had drilled through at 73 feet was not at first familiar fam-iliar to him. He kept on drilling drill-ing until his shaft was down . almost 200 feet. At this point, Charlie's bit broke and he headed for Grand Junction to get the necessary tools for fixing it. But in his pocket he carried some of that unfamiliar un-familiar gray rock. At this point Charlie had been too broke to own a Geiger counter. coun-ter. , When he got to Cisco, he checked his lump of ore with . a- friend's, counter. It - fairly leaped with frenzy and so did Charlie. "We've made a million," he shouted to his wife in his excitement. But he was wrong. The total worth of his discovery came , to a vast amount more than a million. When the Geiger counter went crazy, Steen realized that the ore was uraninte a form of pitchblende, and the principal ore of uranium. With his discovery Steen altered al-tered the minds of geologists and solved one of the complex com-plex problems of uranium geology. ge-ology. Moab's population of 1272 (as per 1950) became a hive of activity almost overnight. The '49's saw nothing compared com-pared to Moab's 1952-3 uranium uran-ium rush. "My Life" Steen's Mi Vida (My Life), mine is located 37 miles from Moab in San Juan county east of Highway 160. Early mining brought out ore yielding yield-ing .50 uranium and in a few places was as rich as 21 uranium valued at ?1 per pound. Steen had no need of a mine dump at first, for there was no such thing as waste. Everything mined was ore. The Utex Exploration Co. with Mr. Dan O'Laurie as its first president, became famous. fam-ous. Within nine months Utex had mined and shipped ore valued at $1 million. The total to-tal value of the ore known to be located in the company's claims was so exceedingly high that government and company officials refused to release figures. Builds Processing Mill Steen added something to his accomplishments when in 1956 his independently owned own-ed Uranium Reduction Co. began operation. This 15'K.'-ton 15'K.'-ton per day uranium refining mill was located beside the Colorado river three miles north of Moab, and is now owned by the Atlas Corporation. Corpor-ation. The nine million dollar dol-lar processing plant, which was second largest of its kind in the United States, helped to bring a great amount am-ount of security to Moab. I recently toured the famous fam-ous Mi Vida Mine and adjacent adja-cent shafts with Ralph Dunn, president of the CDS Mining Co. which is currently involved involv-ed in operations in outlying shafts. As I looked up the original or-iginal shaft where Charles A. Steen entered the rich earth, I was impressed that so much wealth could be squeezed from the gray ore that underlies un-derlies our scenic Canyonlands Canyon-lands country. Moab, the uranium ur-anium capitol of the world, has not seen the end of rag:; to-riches stories. There ate hidden treasures yet to be found by the perservering ones. |