THE MAN FROM MOAB WHO SUPPLIED THE MANHATTAN PROJECT
When you think about Moab, Utah, what comes to mind?
Arches National Park? Slickrock? Hell’s Revenge? Jeeps crawling over red sandstone? Maybe a little mining history?
Here’s one piece of Moab history that might surprise you.
A local businessman named Howard Warren Balsley played a role in supplying uranium to the Manhattan Project, the top-secret World War II program responsible for developing the atomic bomb.
And his story is pretty remarkable.
Howard Balsley arrived in Moab in 1908 as a 22-year-old visitor. He liked the country enough to stay, eventually becoming a Forest Service employee, a county official, a mining businessman, and one of the most influential figures in the early uranium industry.
Long before uranium became big business, Balsley recognized the potential of the mineral deposits scattered throughout southeastern Utah.
In 1934, he signed an agreement with Vitro Manufacturing Company of Pittsburgh to supply uranium ore for its ceramic and glass manufacturing business.
But he didn’t just buy a little ore here and there.
Balsley built a regional network of prospectors, miners, warehouses, and shipping locations. He purchased material from more than 300 small producers scattered across the Colorado Plateau.
He was essentially building a uranium supply chain across the American West.
Then World War II changed everything.
The United States was racing to develop an atomic weapon, and the government needed uranium. The Manhattan Engineer District began looking for domestic sources and investigating the uranium-bearing materials coming out of the Colorado Plateau.
And that’s where Balsley’s operation enters one of the most significant chapters of American history.
Vitro Manufacturing had accumulated a stockpile of high-grade uranium ore through its Moab operation.
The Manhattan Engineer District contracted with Vitro to purchase that stockpile.
The price? $71,880.
The uranium content? Approximately 52,000 pounds of uranium oxide!
A stockpile assembled through the efforts of a Moab businessman and hundreds of independent prospectors had become part of the U.S. government’s secret atomic weapons procurement program.
And this wasn’t the only uranium activity taking place in the region.
Grand Junction became an important processing center. Mills in Colorado and Utah were reworked to recover uranium from materials that had previously been discarded as mining waste. The Colorado Plateau ultimately supplied approximately 14% of the uranium oxide acquired for the Manhattan Project.
Following the war, the uranium business exploded.
Howard Balsley continued advocating for the region’s mining industry and became known as the Father of Uranium.
A few years later, Charlie Steen’s famous Mi Vida discovery in Lisbon Valley helped ignite the uranium boom that transformed Moab.
So the next time you’re driving Highway 191, exploring the La Sal Mountains, or crawling around the backcountry outside Moab, remember that this country has a history that reaches far beyond tourism and recreation.
The red rocks that we love exploring helped supply one of the most consequential technological and military projects in human history.
And a local Moab businessman named Howard Balsley was right in the middle of that story.
How many people knew that Moab had a direct connection to the Manhattan Project?
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