Utah Centennial County History Series - Grand County 1996

ble, and thousands of investors were left with nothing to show but a stack of stock certificates, many with only aesthetic value.

The situation of buyer ignorance was compounded by the fact that government national security regulations prohibited legitimate uranium mining companies from making known detailed information about the ore reserves and quality of the uranium being mined.

Moabites should perhaps have been better informed about many of the mining companies due to their proximity to the arena of activity, but the situation was so volatile and complex, with mergers and other corporate restructuring complicating the picture, that locals were victimized by others and by their own greed. On 21 April 1954 the Salt Lake Tribune published an article under the heading "Moab Becoming a Lawyer's Paradise," alluding to the myriad local problems developing over mining companies, stock certificates, and land sales and leases in the scramble for wealth that accompanied the boom.

The combination of tightened regulations, financial losses, and saturation of legitimate prospecting activity in the plateau helped bring the market and prospecting boom to a slowdown by the beginning of 1956. Until that happened, however, the uranium penny stock market had a tremendous impact in Utah, and certainly in Grand County. Although no major uranium discoveries were made in Grand County, thousands of mining claims were recorded within the county, and there were a few producing strikes. The major discoveries were made to the south and east, but Moab was at the heart of the action and was likely the most transformed of any town in the area.

In fact, a national article by Elizabeth Pope in McCall's magazine of December 1956 called it "the richest town in the U.S.A.''22 Loren Taylor suffered a stroke in 1953 and was forced to relinquish editorial duties at the Times-Independent. Taylor retained ownership of the newspaper, but his active involvement in civic affairs was sorely missed-especially in the turmoil of the coming uranium boom years. He had served as city clerk for many years, and also was a member for more than a decade on the county commission; he also chaired the grazing district advisory board and was superintendent of the local hospital, among other civic contributions-many without any monetary remuneration. He had investments in oil and other companies besides the newspaper. He has been called the "Father of