Uranium Mining in San Juan Hanson L. Bayles
My first involvement with uranium was in the early 1950s. I hauled ore from the Posey mine in Red Canyon. We hauled it in two-ton trucks and averaged about seven and one-half to eight tons of ore a load. The road was dirt all the way, going from the northwest part of Blanding through Big Canyon, Brushy Basin, Cottonwood, then over the Elk Mountain through the Bears Ears and on to Grand Flat. We took bedrolls with us because we never knew how long the trip would take. It usually took about eighteen hours from Blanding to the mine and back. Today we can take a large diesel semi out to Red Canyon and haul twenty-five to thirty tons in six hours. I also hauled from Cottonwood to Durango, Colorado. Devar Shumway and Lark Washburn would take the truck out to Cottonwood and load it, usually with a wheelbarrow or horse and cart. I would take their pickup out about noon and take the load of ore to Durango. I later hauled from the Whirlwind mine. To get there we would go to Bluff through Monument Valley into Arizona, then back to Oljato Trading Post, then north to the San Juan River. We would climb up on a mesa, then back the truck down the other side on the edge of a ledge to the mine. The road was so steep that we could haul just part of a load at a time. We would take the truck back off the mesa, dump the load on the ledge, then go back and get another small load. We would then shovel enough ore on the truck for a full load. We hauled this ore to Monticello and Durango. 299
