Naturita Town Hall - Vintage
by Bob and Nancy Kendrick
Title
Naturita Town Hall - Vintage
Artist
Bob and Nancy Kendrick
Medium
Photograph - Photograph
Description
A vintage rendition of an image of the town hall in the small Colorado town of Naturita. The town gets its name from the Spanish for "Little Nature". The town sits at the southeast corner of the Paradox Valley in the western portion of Colorado, just over the Utah state line.
History of the town: Naturita is located at 5431 feet above sea level southeast of Paradox Valley in the far western section of southern Colorado. In 1881, Naturita was a close-knit ranching community on the San Miguel River. The town had a post office, a one-room schoolhouse and regular church gatherings and socials. The ranchers pushed their cattle “on the hoof” to railheads in Placerville and Montrose for shipment to market. Mrs. Rockwell Blake named Naturita, which means “Little Nature” in Spanish. Mrs. Blake designated the place with this unusual name because of it’s beautiful setting beside the river, which contrasted sharply with the surrounding barren country.
Then in the 1900’s, copper and carnotite were discovered near Uravan and in the Paradox Valley. That triggered several mineral booms in the area. Naturita being at a natural crossroads for the area, it became a supply center for freighters carrying ore and supplies between Placerville and the mines. While most of the real money went to the corporations that owned the mines (and the prospectors who first discovered them), many local residents made good profits from the service and supply businesses. In between mineral booms, the local folks kept on with their cattle ranches - until the 1950’s.
In 1939, a new mill had opened at Vancoram to process vanadium, a steel-hardening alloy. Secretly, the mill also processed uranium for the US Government’s nuclear weapons research. World War II needs kept the mill busy but demand for uranium skyrocketed after the war ended. Stories proliferated that anyone could stumble on a fortune in uranium nearly anywhere on the Colorado Plateau and Naturita was quickly flooded with miners and millers. Uranium mining dominated the town until the Vancorum mill closed in 1958 due to falling uranium prices. Depending on global mineral prices, the mill at Uravan opened and closed again and again until finally, in 1983, it completely closed down and local residents were forced to diversify again to survive. These days, most residents make their living off cattle ranching, small businesses and tourism. There’s also a lot of oil/gas drilling going on in the area these days.
Uploaded
December 5th, 2012
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