Windord Bunce, Moab, Utah, Uranium History Series

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WINFORD BUNCE #1 JD: Well, were there a lot of sheep herds here, or were they here just for wintering? WB: No, there were actually people here that owned sheep at that time. There were several of them that were actually in the sheep business that lived here. Now it's strictly a winter range deal. JD: Was most of the mining operation done by individuals or were there any companies here? WB: In those days, uranium and vanadium was something that they didn't even talk about. It was a gopher-hole affair. No companies. A few individuals would go out and dig out a little ore and sell it. Now, Mr. Balsley was in the business of buying high-grade uranium, and a few people would go out and dig out just exactly that--the high grade. And he would buy this, and I think he would ship it to Pittsburgh, if I remember it. JD: Right. WB: But he bought it and put it up in--oh, I don't knnw, fifty or a hundred pound bags, and that was it. We never had any organized mining, uranium as such, until in 1952. JD: So were there many people that you would kind of refer to as Saturday or Sunday afternoon prospectors, who just prospected to earn a little bit of extra money? WB: Oh, there was quite a few people that actually worked at this quite a lot. I don't know, maybe twenty-five, 25