Uravan...the Radioactive Town the EPA and Health Department Destroyed 

I spent most of my childhood growing up in Uravan in the 70s and 80s. Went to the grade school, picked up mail at the post office, skated at the recreation hall on Fridays and filled up my little beater motorcycle at the gas station. I've seen a lot of pictures online of what remains but your drone images are remarkable! I saw nooks and crannies on the hillsides that we would hike through as kids that I had long forgotten about, along with areas of the river that we fished and swam in. Thank you for the video, brought back a lot of great childhood memories...outstanding video!

Great job on the video! I was born in 1969 and raised in Uravan until 1979, that's when the EPA first started the shutting down of the town and my family had to relocate. I remember we were allowed to take our personal belongings and leave because they wouldn't let us buy the house we lived in. A few months later I remember seeing our house on the back of a trailer being lined up along the road with several other homes getting prepared to be hauled up to the burial area. It brings back a lot of memories from my childhood. In the opening scene, I said "That's the baseball park!" Then a few minutes later you said precisely that. LOL

Very glad you did a show on Uravan as in Uranium-Vanadium. Of note when the superfund scrubbed and buried the town they also removed the country road in both directions, dug it clean to the substrate because the road was paved on a foundation of Uranium tailings. They tried to be rather thorough. For years the project even contracted private security posted at its perimeter. Not far on the river (since tailings were going in the river) a demineralization plant was built to gather the silt dissolved in the water. It is still there at Bedrock, CO.

My Mom and Dad lived in Utahan. Dad was a geologist work8ng for the USGS and later at Climax Uranium. I think my Dad discovered the Mi Vida mine- I unfortunately didn’t write down Dad’s his5ory while he was alive. He is in a small group of people that can claim the finding of a mineral deposit that was mined.

I live in Colorado and went to Uravan 2-3 years back, found a ton of tailings just off the road maybe a mile up the road from the Hanging Flumes Overlook. When I visited they were having their yearly reunion. So as luck would have it we found a place to camp next to the River deeper in the valley with the sheer walls next to us. It is so beautiful in that area, vastly different views from the majority of Colorado. The visit was really instrumental in me deciding I wanted to do something radiation adjacent as a job, so now I am a Radon Mitagator.

Drew. I have been interested in this area for some time. I have looked at topographic maps and google earth before. Your drone footage took this to a new level of viewing and understanding. It is good you document sites like this, thank you for your time and effort.

I lived in Uravan, 1953-1957, My dad was mill superintendent, The town swimming pool was a re-purposed tailings pond 12 ft deep. Housing was in groups: A-block, B-block (my house) up to J-block when I moved. That cave with door at end of video was where they stored explosives, The road you took at end, up to mesa went to airstrip + mines further back. The view of the San Miguel valley overlooking Uravan at end was great for finding arrowheads, just laying around. Unfortunely, I got Leukemia in later life,

Went through that beautiful canyon and stopped at Uravan on a motorcycle trip over 40 years ago, enchanting ride with only about one car every few miles...Great video, thanks for your effort.

I grew up near Uravan and many of my family members grew up in Uravan. My grandparents worked in the mines and my dad drove big trucks there. It's so crazy to see how much places can change in a not-very-long period of time. It's really sad that they refused to let any of the town stand.

Drew your drone shots are amazing, they really take your videos to the next level

Here's the abstract from a 2007 paper about the caner rates in Uravan. They found elevated rates of lung cancer among underground miners, not unexpected, but everyone else had lower than average rates of cancer compared to the rest of the US: "A cohort mortality study was conducted of all adult residents who ever lived in Uravan, Colorado, a company town built around a uranium mill. Vital status was determined through 2004 and standardised mortality analyses conducted for 1905 men and women alive after 1978 who lived for at least 6 months between 1936 and 1984 in Uravan. Overall, mortality from all causes (standardised mortality ratio (SMR) 0.90) and all cancers (SMR 1.00) was less than or as expected based on US mortality rates. Among the 459 residents who had worked in underground uranium mines, a significant increase in lung cancer was found (SMR 2.00; 95% CI 1.39-2.78). No significant elevation in lung cancer was seen among the 767 female residents of Uravan or the 622 uranium mill workers. No cause of death of a priori interest was significantly increased in any group, i.e. cancers of the kidney, liver, breast, lymphoma or leukaemia or non-malignant respiratory disease, renal disease or liver disease. This community cohort study revealed a significant excess of lung cancer among males who had been employed as underground miners. We attribute this excess to the historically high levels of radon in uranium mines of the Colorado Plateau, coupled with the heavy use of tobacco products. There was no evidence that environmental radiation exposures above natural background associated with the uranium mill operations increased the risk of cancer. Although the population studied was relatively small, the follow-up was long, extending up to 65 years after first residence in Uravan, and nearly half of the study subjects had died." Why? It might be the Healthy Worker Effect, which is often seen in studies of nuclear workers (they often have lower than average cancer rates). People who moved to Uravan for work were likely healthier, better paid, and also had better healthcare than average Americans. So although they were exposed to mildly elevated radiation levels that may have caused some cancers cases, this was more than fully offset by being healthier overall. Boice, J.D., Cohen, S.S., Mumma, M.T., Chadda, B. and Blot, W.J., 2007. Mortality among residents of Uravan, Colorado who lived near a uranium mill, 1936-84. Journal of Radiological Protection, 27(3), p.299.

My family owns much of the land in eastern oregon. I would LOVE to have you come out and check out the cinnabar mines! They have been on our private property for decades and literally no one has been inside them for 100 years. We used to go in about 50 feet before getting too scared as kids. But man it would be awesome to have you make a cool video! I know there is arsenic mercury gold silver and I believe some areas of Radeon on other radioactive spots.

Great video - what a blast from the past. I lived there from ages 9-12 in the early 60's. I used to swim and play in that river. It was down the hill from my house. Seeing the drone fly over the buried town of Uravan brought tears to my eyes.

Great location drew and big thanks very much for your time muchly appreciated and greetings from Scotland to you all on here....

One of the most underrated-ly beautiful places in Colorado. Thanks for the video.

Your air footages are awesome! You also did a great work with your historic analysis and place description. Thank you!

I really enjoyed this. Beautiful filming, editing and music. Better than most of what I’ve seen on TV. Really makes me want to take a road trip out there. Glad I found your channel.

your camera shots are very impressive and underrated man! loved that milky way timelapse with the reflections in the car windows. awesome shots!

Many fond memories of Uravan visiting my grandparents who lived there for more than 30 years. Good video.

Thank you again for continuing to make such interesting and excellently done content man! Love your videos brother 👍

I get your frustration with the heavy-handed cleanup methods used by both the state and the feds (Rocky Mountain PBS published "Uranium Mania" here on YT about 5 years ago which discusses Uravan and more). They've recently gotten their mitts into a couple old mining sites I like to explore. But while radiation fears contributed to Uravan's fate, that's not the whole story. All of these century-plus mining regions host a bingo sheet of heavy metals, milling reagents, and miscellaneous industrial chemicals. Some are concentrated near processing facilities and others are scattered widely because nobody worried much about erosion and scatter prevention until the 1980s. These continue to erode and concentrate downstream until someone intervenes. This being a state where every drop of water is reused multiple times from the watershed to the border, every former mining district in the state is a public health concern.

My dad was a nuclear medicine tech, and I often as a child, would hold a Geiger counter over bottles of isotopes. It was awesome. Later I was an x-ray tech, and would tell the nurses that I like where to stand as I shot an x-ray. Right behind me...

You should do a story on the tailings from Grand Junction being buried outside of Whitewater. It all ties together.

Brilliant video. You created some stunning shots this one. A Beautiful and interesting place.

Love that Old Man Emu hat. Used to get a lot of parts for my Suzuki Samurai, from them.

Like your truck outfit, Drew. Nice for the adventures you get up to. The videos are getting better and more interesting. American history. Great drone footage! More geology, please!

My grandpa (now in his late 80s) grew up in Uravan. He and my grandma lived there when they were young and he drove trucks. 10 years ago we took a trip out to the site where they lived in rock huts that were still standing overlooking the valley. The warning signs I have photos of are from the U.S. Department of the Interior. I remember as a kid living in the Grand Valley, there was a lot of cleanup as the old tailings were removed from under buildings in the 1990s, they built a special road along CO50 to bury the material in the middle of nowhere. It's cool you got some drone video of the site, I should get my grandpa to do some recordings telling of his time living there before it gets too late.

Love your adventures! I think it'd be cool if you could attach a rad detector to the quad, so you could fly over sites like this, and have it chart levels tied to GPS points, so you could make a 'heat' map. Neat area.. amazing history.

Another great episode! Loving watching this channel grow, Drew. You’ve got a neat niche, a lot of knowledge and talent. Keep after it my friend!

Drew, if you take DD19 Rd west of Hwy 90 and climb up toward Monogram Mesa, on the left you'll see the Gold Eagle Mine which still has a big steel headframe plus the hoist house. You can also look down the shaft which has a steel grate over it. There are other mines and tailings dumps on top of the mesa where you might be able to find some radioactive ore. I found a nice big chunk of sandstone with one side covered in yelllow carnotite when browsing around the Gold Eagle site.

I have stopped in that campground a lot. Hi from Zen Flower Temple in Grand Junction

Great work, as always. Merry Christmas!

Great presentation and fabulous drone footage. Thanks for posting this.

In high school, we used to travel to Naterita near Nucla for wrestling. I lived in Olathe at the time (1970).

Love these videos, I need to explore like this man its so nice. Nature is absolutely beautiful

Awesome as usual. Love to tour with u in AZ in sites I've already surveyed. It's amazing what one can find!

I absolutely love your setup and instruments. I want to do some geological surveys this summer myself.

The rocks covering everything reminded me of the SL1 reactor disaster in Idaho. Can you do a video on that? As I recall you being a Montana guy. It would be really cool if you could find out where they abandoned the ambulance as well. I don't think it is in-situ anymore. For those of you wanting a good rabbit hole to get lost in for a day or so, try to find the autopsy reports from SL1. Medical examiners LITERALLY used 10ft+ pole extensions on medical tools to stay as far away from the bodies as possible.

Thumbs up Drew, they did the same thing here in monticello where the uranium mill was. At one time there was close to half a dozen mills in the general area and they processed uranium and vanadium from the mines around. And the atomic energy commission was buying all of it. A lot of this started with the Manhattan program, we have the one of the last uranium mills in the United States still running and it's south of Blanding utah

That's amazing! Never knew of it till now.

God I wish I was born 50 years later ! Could have had a blast with a camera drone as a teenager !

Great show ‼️thanks 🙏✌🏽👍

I just visited it yesterday, on my way to Grand Junction Kind of a spooky place!

As always, great video!

Cool stuff. Have you ever looked into the LOOW/NFSS?(Lake Ontario Ordnance Works/Niagara Falls Storage Site) Very interesting. One of the earliest seeds of the Manhattan Project. They have a few rail cars buried there in situ. Place was disguised to look like a farm but it was an early Enrichment site. It didn't last long because it wasn't going to be feasible for the large ramp-up Post WWII. There are a number of other sites in that region that are connected to the Nuclear Cold War era. Large piles of mill tailings and industrial waste that is loaded with Thorium and other radionuclides. Fuel Rod manufacturing and other assorted industries. Linde. Bethlehem Steel. Simonds Saw and Steel to name few. Further South about 50 miles, The West Valley Demonstration Project. A leaky, failed reprocessing site.

I find it amazing that the stars are reflected in the windows of your vehicle. Wow

Cool show you got me hooked!

yeah i love the scary anti-drone signs... and yeah.... property owner can limit what happens on their property, but yup... once in the air... as long as the airspace is legal (usually is).

Great drone footage Drew, and glad to see that you remained legal while flying!

Love your content Drew.

Thanks for sharing.

I love that side if montrose County. Such a beautiful area to visit. Thanks for the video

awesome camera work and great story I never heard before

Beautiful views!

Beautiful cliff shots at the end. Glad to see one of us made it back out to CO 😅

The DOE as part of project plowshare touched off a nuke in the hills east of Fallon, Nv. near the ghost town of Eagle. The subsequently drilled into the cavern and there are stories about that drilling. The ground zero site is accessible but that whole area is very soon coming under the control of the Navy as a bombing range and will be shut off from the public. Might think about a trip there while you still can. Some of the drilling stories are pretty spectacular as to the drilling mud that came back up out of the hole. I've been there but not with equipment. I'd be interested in a site visit by someone like you, documenting the site before it's gone.

Mindblowing landscape! Stay safe!

Beautiful scenery.

Absolutely Beautiful!!! I envy you so much!!! Keep up the Great Work!!!

My great grnadfather first moved to uravna with his wife back when it was first founded. He worked in mines that helped supplied uranium for the first atomic bomb. so this really cool to see because last time that nay of oru family was up there. Was right before my gradnam left with her second husband for south carolina. She wanted to so bad to go find the house that she grew up jsut to see if still was there and even remembered the road where it was but it was blocked off. she still tells us stories aobtu it was like to liv ein uravna and we have family pciture from that time of what ti looked like and it was beautiful

Very nice!

It is Uravan as it is where the ballfield used to be as well as the archery range.

I have an idea for a video you might like to do Perhaps You can make a video about different uranium bearing minerals and how to identify them.

Uravan is an amazing area. Lots of cool roads to check out. That campsite is really cool too, and right off the Rimrocker trail. Did you take that shortcut along the Dolores river between paradox and the uravan valley? Pretty cool view of the hanging flume. There’s old mines EVERYWHERE around there. Up behind biscuit rock and across the valley from the uravan site. Lots of small exploratory shafts and fills.

Another incredibly interesting story with stunning photography and an amazing star field. When are you moving to the discovery channel. Bravo and happy holidays!

Enjoy your videos! Thank you for the camera equipment list. What video editing software do you use?

wow amazing locations and View

I have lived in 2 states and near Uranium plants. did not know this till I moved here. Lakeview,Ore and Jeffery City,Wyo. Maybe it's the plate in my head Clark. I do want to take the ground zero tour. Thanks for the video like your stuff.

Hey i camp at that exact same spot! Wonderful video. In the height of summer there are actually fireflies there.

Camp cooking!? AFT. Might need to upgrade a little bit, but still good stuff. Oh, and the other content, photography, drones, topic, etc still on point. MC, HNY!

Your videos are fantastic

Fritz p. Thx for the comment. Now I know why “Mi Vida” sounded so familiar. Of course my Daddid not find that mine- unfortunately I don’t remember which deposit he found. Dad did know Charlie Steen and the main players in Moab. I ate dinner at Steen’s former house one time. I don’t know if it is still used for a restaurant.

Love your camping setup. Have you ever done an overview of your whole kit?

The Government doing Government things. I never knew how pervasive nuclear/atomic issues were in the United States until I stumbled onto your channel. Take care and stay safe. Merry Christmas.

That river is very warm in June great for swimming by the bridge.

Big mill in Moab..huge.

Beautiful!

I lived there for 16 years ,played, swam and did what kids do there. It is a beutiful place.

I have a DJI mini 2 drone. I love it, fixing to order another one,

I just learned about Uravan today on Atlas Obscura (planning a trip to western CO/eastern UT), and now I see a video about it.

Hi Drew! I’m a Health Physicist for a state health department and was just curious if you use CBRNResponder for your radiation mapping? If not I recommend checking it out

Rocks remind me of the uranium covered mound in St Charles Mo, highest point in St Charles, they buried the uranium and tnt plant along other hazards there . Have you heard of it, a Book Safer on the other side of the fence

Of note: EPA CORRACTS data show that Denver sidewalks and downtown road base were/are ‘hot’ as well.

Been there! I also knew someone that worked in the uranium mill there.

Where can one get one of those cases you have for your spectrometer?

Your video music selection is top-notch. Who composes?

Great video with awesome views. Funny you said "pretty good place to end" and the video stopped.. Then there was the processing circle and would not continue..

What a beautiful area! I'm also really curious about the rocks used to bury the site in terms of materials/coloring - from the drone footage it's clear there are lines of demarcation viewable from the air that must be there for a reason. I wonder what that reasoning is. Anyone know more about this site to explain?

1:50 Does putting it in a ziplock bag affect the reading ? I thought that was your SOP ? What % of your reading is Alpha particles that could be blocked by a ziplock bag ?

U need a holder/Jig for a geiger counter on a drone (for mines too). Can just turn the camera toward the counter display when u want to know the reading.

Through this area the Dolores river picks up 76% of the harm full salt that is found in the Colorado river. You are standing on a massive salt dome, where a good deal of uranium tailings have been placed for safe storage.

You should try your geiger counter at cruising altitude on an airliner.

great video. would have been even better if you gave a more detailed overview of what the epa did to this area.

You should check out Slick Rock if you haven't been, lots of mines out there, most notably the burro mine. The ore bin is right on the side of the road and has some pretty hot rocks laying around it and there is a tunnel similar in size to Mi Vida near by but it's gated. There's also some old buildings just north east but I haven't been to them.

Could lead-210 be used for RTG's in space missions? The 22 year half life sounds like it would be useful.

Sooo glad it wasn’t mined at all. There would have been so much hazards, considering they were so reckless with it. It wasn’t just fears. No matter now, it’s more safe than it would have been otherwise, and gorgeous. Hopefully it will remain this way.

Finding that road in the middle of the night might be bad. There is a wee little drop-off, not all 4-wheel drive vehicle would handle well.

In that last minute of video, it looks like you're standing right at the edge of a large open strip mine. "Maybe you'll find one" as you stand right next to it. 🤣

Have you ever tried strapping the RadEye to the drone so you could get remote readings as you fly over locations, like Uravan's grave?

There are those who believe free access to previously developed uranium ore containing areas could eventualy lead to someone collecting enough ore to refine enough uranium to create an issue. Thunderfoot, Cody's lad, etc. etc. Uranium in particular as it's the easiest raw ingredient for the active element to come by. It's just nearly impossible to get enough refined stuff. Thank GOD!