Re: The mystery of the missing yellow cake

A very nice book "Quest for the Golden Circle" by Arthur Gomez describes much of the economic development of the Four Corners area from the 40s through the 70s. In it, he describes the uranium boom that hit the area in the 50s. The main concern on the part of the Atomic Energy Commission was how to transport the uranium ore (well before it was refined into yellowcake), and the solution was highways. In fact, much of the responsibilty for some of the major highway improvements in the area in the 50s was handed over to the AEC. If I recall a couple of other sources of info, the DRGW was in pretty dire financial straits until the San Juan oil boom, which didn't occur until later. The Vanadium Corporation of America (VCA) mill in Durango processed quite a bit of uranium ore, but it seems to have been trucked out rather than shipped over the San Juan line. There's nothing definitive in the book that says how the ore was shipped out, but the focus of the Colorado Plateau uranium industry was in Utah, so it makes sense that the bulk of the ore went west and north from Durango, rather than east.
Relative to the "hot" gondolas noted in a couple of the posts, it wouldn't surprise me if that was from coal residues, as coal tends to have a fair abount of radioactivity, and probably more so in that part of the country.
Andy