The Rise and Fall of Wyoming's Yellowcake Industry

The Lucky Mc properties the panel credits to Neil McNeice became one of the district's big mills. Utah Construction, whose crews had worked on Hoover Dam, designed and ran it; it started on February 28, 1958, rated at 750 tons of ore a day, and soon averaged more than 1,000. Lucky Mc merged into Utah Construction in 1960, and the mill ran until 1988, processing roughly 10.6 million metric tons of ore. Reclamation of its tailings was finished in December 2004, and the site is to pass to the Department of Energy for long-term care.

What the plaque says

The Rise and Fall of Wyoming's Yellowcake Industry Gas Hills and Crooks Gap Uranium Districts Although uranium discoveries occurred throughout Wyoming beginning in the early 1900s it was not until 1948, when the Atomic Energy Commission guaranteed a market for yellowcake (processed uranium), that prospecting started in earnest. In September 1953, Neil McNeice and his wife Maxine first discovered uranium in the Gas Hills. Today, a plaque marks Discovery Hill. He quickly found partners and developed the Lucky Mc mining properties. More activity followed, with a hot discovery in Crooks Gap later the same year, and Jeffrey City was born. Before the uranium bust, Jeffrey City boasted a population of over 4,000 people. By 1955, more than 7,000 mining claims were filed in Fremont County alone. Just north of Jeffrey City, the Split Rock Mill started operation in 1957. More mills sprang up in the Gas Hills and at Riverton. In the 1950s, man camps and mining towns blossomed in the remote Gas Hills Mining District, with the population peaking at nearly 3,000 people. Mine haul roads connected the mining settlements, and uranium flourished in the 1950s and 1960s. A downturn in 1973 depopulated the towns in the Gas Hills. Then, when demand for Wyoming's yellowcake fell in the mid-1980s, came the bust. Today the camps and towns are ghost towns, with the school, bar, grocery, and post office torn down, mobile homes moved away, and dirt streets overgrown. The huge mines were closed, demolished, and reclaimed to grassland. Little evidence remains of the Gas Hills-Crooks Gap uranium boom. Although uranium mining is only a fraction of what it was in 1980, there are hints that the next boom may be just around the corner.

Where it stands

More markers nearby

• The Yellowcake Boom — steps away
• Split Rock — 23 mi
• Jeffrey City: Biggest Bust of Them All — 24 mi
• Bridger Road - Waltman Crossing — 26 mi