A Brief History of Naturita
A mill along the San Miguel River northwest of Naturita was part of western Colorado’s uranium and vanadium industry. The mill began operating in 1939 and initially processed vanadium ore. In 1942, its operators changed the process to recover uranium as well. The mill ran intermittently through 1958, processing about 704,000 tons of ore over that span. Uranium processing returned to the site from 1961 to 1963. The former mill site is now part of the U.S. Department of Energy’s Legacy Management program.