Yellow Cake

[Ben Lamb]

I'm n WY visiting with family, and we decided to head out to the old homestead. Well, the old man-camps and trailer parks of the Gas Hills. In the 1950's and 1960's the Uranium mining boom was in full swing. Over 20,000 people were living and working out in the Gas Hills, which are about 50 miles east of Riverton and 30 miles south of Jeffery City. Dad spent most of his childhood out there with the song dogs and pronghorn, and got a little wild from time to time.

Dad's first car - 1950 Ford. This is down in Coyote Creek, about 300 yards from where Grandpa bladed out a trailer park for another man camp. Not much remains of this place except the car, a few pieces of weathered lumber and some pretty good stories. Dad was telling me about the time he came home from deer hunting to find a bobcat chasing after his sisters' cat. Everyone was pretty worked up, and my Grandmother told him to grab his rifle and shoot "that damned bobcat!" He chased after the bobcat right as two singer salesmen pulled into the trailer park. According to dad, they didn't stick around...just turned tail and headed back to town.

Old Open Pit Uranium Mine being reclaimed 55 years later:

Some contouring:

More Contouring:

It's pretty danged impressive to see the level of reclamation that's going on. The project is funded through AML funds. There is a big down side of all of this. DOE, AEC and the companies involved routinely forced employees to ignore high doses of radiation in order to keep production high. That's led to a lot of cases of cancer being reported, and a fairly large settlement for the victims.

Lots of pronghorn on the undisturbed ground, a few muleys too:

 

[tarheel]

There were a lot of people roaming the woods and prairies with Geiger counters back then trying to hit it lucky and get rich. I often run into small pits dug by uranium hunters back in the 50's in the wooded area I hunt. One of them was so perfectly located that I used it as a ground blind on numerous occasions and even killed a buck from it during BP season. Just like shooting from a foxhole.

 

[1_pointer]

Cool history on that place, thanks for sharing! It'll be interesting to see what it looks like a few years after the reclamation is completed.

 

[DreaminofMT6X6s]

It's pretty amazing to see our history like that. I spent 100 days in a scummy motel in Indian Springs Nevada in 2007 (close proximity to mercury, groom lake, etc.). From a nearby mountain (Mt. Charleston I think) you can see where people stood to watch the government perform tests on the atomic bomb. From satellite photos you can see the craters on the far side of the ridge from town. We did some crazy stuff back in the day.

 

[Ben Lamb]

Cool history on that place, thanks for sharing! It'll be interesting to see what it looks like a few years after the reclamation is completed.

It looked like they were 2-3 years into the project. The spots that they had completed and reseeded were amazing. Good growth of reseeded natives, and the contouring was easily becoming invisible. I didn't see any invasives that I could identify throughout the project site. That's pretty impressive for an area that was so heavily disturbed for so long. In fact, the only thing left of the settlement was a concrete pad where the grocery store was. Everything else was gone. Good growth on the rabbit brush and sage brush down in the draws, and just a ton of pronghorn all over. A good percentage of the does had twins and we saw that fattest coyote I think I've ever seen.

One pit had 9 scrapers on it, and the big pit in the photos has had a ton of dirt moved onto the slopes. Dad's memory was that there were pit after pit a few hundred yards from each other and they went about straight down.

Pretty cool to see what we can do in terms of conservation when we put our minds, and our money, into it.

 

[What Map]

Ben, thanks for the great essay and introducing your father to me. I printed your blog from MT's Bully Pulpit about your father and will take it with me into Slough Creek to read. Di and I are riding our horses up there on Friday for three nights of wilderness bliss.

 

[Ben Lamb]

Shannon, enjoy the trip! Extremely Jealous.

 

[Mudranger1]

Were the antelope glowing at night?

 

[Ben Lamb]

No, but we saw a few mutants.

Nothing what Eli posts, but there were a few that Randy wouldn't turn away.

 

[1_pointer]

It looked like they were 2-3 years into the project. The spots that they had completed and reseeded were amazing. Good growth of reseeded natives, and the contouring was easily becoming invisible. I didn't see any invasives that I could identify throughout the project site. That's pretty impressive for an area that was so heavily disturbed for so long. In fact, the only thing left of the settlement was a concrete pad where the grocery store was. Everything else was gone. Good growth on the rabbit brush and sage brush down in the draws, and just a ton of pronghorn all over. A good percentage of the does had twins and we saw that fattest coyote I think I've ever seen.

One pit had 9 scrapers on it, and the big pit in the photos has had a ton of dirt moved onto the slopes. Dad's memory was that there were pit after pit a few hundred yards from each other and they went about straight down.

Pretty cool to see what we can do in terms of conservation when we put our minds, and our money, into it.

Good deal!! It is amazing what well timed (within a given year) and thought out rehab can do for a place. Sorry to hear about the rabbitbrush! I have yet to find anything it's good for other than making my fingers sticky when I've had to clip and weigh it...

The way your dad describes the site, it sounds a whole lot like what the early strip mining in SW Indiana was like in the '30-50's. Much of that was never reclaimed and just allowed to naturally revegetate itself. In a way it's a good thing as the state now controls a big (by Indiana standards) chunk of it and it's open for hunting/fishing. I've spent many days walking the "strippers" looking for critters.

 

[sweetnectar]

How much radiation did you get when waiting in your ground blind/uranium pit?

 

[tarheel]

How much radiation did you get when waiting in your ground blind/uranium pit?

Probably not nearly as much as when working on nuke armed bombers on the hot pad or 20 some years in and out of several nuclear power plants. Word I got was that they were chasing really minute readings and most holes yielded nothing, so no danger.

 

[MTbowhunter84]

Looks like an awesome trip, and great history!

 

[Papa-Zulu]

I was working for the Wyoming Game & Fish Dept. in 1975, and remember the Jeffrey City area being in a frenzy of activity. When I left for Alaska in 1983, houses in Jeffrey City were selling for $15,000 and $17,000. These were houses that could have commanded four times that amount had they been located elsewhere. Everything went to hell in a hurry.

Nice historical account, Ben. and great pictures.

 

[Ben Lamb]

You were in Jeffry City when I was in Lander (albeit 3 years old)! I spent a lot of time in JC with my cousin. Uncle was working at one of the mines south of town. They moved to Lander after the mine closed and went to work for US Steel. That didn't last long either.

The history around this area of WY is amazing.

 

[Blacktailbc]

Nice History. I have trampled around that area some. I try to stop in at the Split Rock Bar and have a beer when i drive through there.