Grand Junction, CO

From 1943 until 1945, Grand Junction, Colorado was the center of the Manhattan Project’s secret effort to mine and refine uranium ore from surrounding mills in the Colorado Plateau. By 1946, over 2,600,000 pounds of uranium oxide had been produced from Colorado Plateau material, representing 14 percent of the total uranium acquired by the MED. Though this domestic enterprise was small and expensive, it transformed the uranium industry and brought tremendous growth and money to towns like Grand Junction, Uravan, and Durango.