Fact mine-036
newrecordconfirmed History: San Rafael Swell uranium was first reported in 1914 at Temple Mountain and boomed after World War II
A 1957 USGS report for the Atomic Energy Commission (H. S. Johnson Jr., Bulletin 1046-D) says uranium ore in the San Rafael district of Emery County was first reported in 1914 at Temple Mountain, on the east flank of the Swell; the deposits were mined for radium, and possibly vanadium, during World War I and intermittently to 1942; geologists studied Temple Mountain for the Manhattan Engineer District during World War II; production rose quickly after the war; and from 1952 to 1956 output came mainly from the Temple Mountain deposits and Vernon Pick's Delta mine, with the Lucky Strike and 10 to 15 smaller deposits.
In plain termsEmery County has mined uranium, off and on, for more than a century, including for the government's Cold War programs. That long history, from World War I radium through the 1950s Atomic Energy Commission era, is why old workings dot the Swell, and why new uranium interest there is not unusual on its own.
- Uranium Resources of the San Rafael District, Emery County, Utah: a Regional Synthesis (Bulletin 1046-D) (U.S. Geological Survey (H. S. Johnson, Jr.), 1957) primary government “The Temple Mountain deposits were mined for radium and possibly byproduct vanadium”