Show burro worked in uranium too the rocky mountain canary that stubborn but dependable jackass of the mountain mining district played a big part in the discovery of uranium in 1898 burros packed ten tons of uranium bearing ore out ot of the rough roc roe creek country in montrose county colo A Frent frenchman hman bought the ore for shipment to paris and madam curie who with her husband was conducting extensive experiments with the mineral A short time later they announced the discovery of radium but it has never been determined if the curies auries actually were using colorado plateau uranium at the time of the discovery they were also using african and south american ores in their experiments however ore was purchased on the plateau for the curies auries b by y charles charlei coulot a french chemist chemis t accordi accordia accor dig ig to a 1904 issue of 0 mining journal gordon kimball of ouray had the journal that he had obtained samples of a yellow mineral along roc roe creek for the chemist and later determined that it contained per cent uranium oxide and IS 15 per cent vanadium noting the high uranium content and the latin word for yellow he be named it kimball Kirn ball leased the claim and soon was loading up burros for the 12 mile trip to paradox valley from paradox valley the ore was hauled 80 miles to placerville erville by wagons where it was forwarded to denver kimball sent some of the mineral to M adolph carnot and it is believed by old timers on the plateau that carnot applied the name to the ore the tha 11 1 ore that Is proving to be the biggest 1 agest uranium producer on the plateau |