The Utah discovery that literally saved America’s nuclear weapons program

Charlie Steen’s Mi Vida Mine Discovery at Moab

Charlie Steen came to Utah broke and hungry on Christmas 1950.

The fired geologist moved his pregnant wife and four sons into shacks while hunting uranium for the Cold War. For two years, they ate poached deer and cereal as Steen dug holes with borrowed cash.

Then on July 6, 1952, his drill hit pay dirt near what’s now Arches National Park. The rock made a Geiger counter go wild, and Steen ran to his wife shouting, “We’ve hit it!”

Soon, his Mi Vida mine shipped a million dollars in ore. Moab grew from sleepy town to uranium boomtown almost overnight.

The story of America’s uranium king awaits at Arches National Park.

Charlie Got Fired and Blacklisted for Being a Rebel

Charlie Steen lost his job at Standard Oil in the late 1940s for fighting with his bosses. Oil companies put him on their blacklist, forcing him to work as a carpenter in Houston during winter 1949.

With a pregnant wife and three kids under four to feed, Charlie needed a new plan. He read about uranium opportunities in a mining magazine.

The government promised set prices for ten years, plus a $10,000 bonus for each new high-grade uranium find.

The Steens Arrived in Utah on Christmas Day with Almost Nothing

Charlie borrowed $1,000 from his mom, loaded his pregnant wife M.L. and young sons into a red jeep pulling a trailer, and drove to Utah.

They rolled into southeast Utah on Christmas Day 1950, stopping near tiny Cisco, about 30 miles north of Moab.

Charlie planned to search a triangle from Moab to Dove Creek, Colorado, then to Grand Junction, Colorado and back north. This rough area became their hunting ground for the next two years.

His Family Ate Poached Deer While Living in Shacks

For almost two years, the Steen family moved between trailers and tarpaper shacks while Charlie looked for uranium. They lived on poached deer meat and cereal during their search.

Charlie hunted wild game to feed his growing family while they barely got by with no money.

Things got so bad they moved to Tucson for about a year, where Charlie worked as a carpenter to save money to return to Utah.

Local Miners Laughed at “Steen’s Folly”

Charlie couldn’t afford a Geiger counter like other uranium hunters, so he used an old diamond drill rig instead.

He thought uranium would collect in structures similar to oil pools, the opposite of what other miners believed.

In spring 1951, he claimed twelve spots behind the old Big Buck Mine, an area government engineers already called worthless. Local miners made fun of his odd methods, calling his work “Steen’s Folly.

A Broken Drill Bit Led to the Motherlode

On July 6, 1952, Charlie’s luck changed when his drill bit broke at 197 feet, just 3 feet short of his goal in Big Indian Wash.

The broken gear forced him to pull up the core sample, which cut through 14 feet of pitchblende, a main uranium ore never before found in the area.

Charlie didn’t know what he found right away, but he felt “the hole had finally come in for the Steen family.

The Geiger Counter Went Crazy Three Weeks Later

Three weeks after pulling up the core, Charlie took his blackish rock to a friend with a Geiger counter in Cisco. When they tested it, the needle shot off the scale with radiation.

Charlie ran back to their shack, yelling to his wife: “We’ve hit it! We’ve hit it! It’s a million dollar lick!”

He named his claim “Mi Vida,” Spanish for “My Life,” marking when everything changed for his struggling family.

Uranium So Pure It Shipped Millions in Just Six Months

The Mi Vida mine sent out a million dollars worth of ore in its first six months. Some samples tested up to 87 percent pure uranium, a shockingly high grade that amazed mining experts.

The deposit stretched about 3,000 feet long, 800 feet wide, and up to 35 feet thick, making it the largest high-grade uranium deposit in the United States.

Mining experts now call it one of the most important mineral finds of the last century.

Moab Transformed from Sleepy Town to Boomtown Overnight

Moab grew from 1,200 to 6,500 people in just a few years as thousands of miners flooded the area. The small farming town couldn’t handle the growth.

Locals rented out rooms and yards for trailers because of housing shortages. The town ran short on water, had sewer backups, and schools ran multiple shifts.

People waited in line to make phone calls as Moab tried to catch up with its sudden growth.

From Rags to Riches: Steen Built a Mansion and Flew to Dance Lessons

Charlie built a $250,000 hilltop mansion with a swimming pool, greenhouse, and rooms for servants. He flew his private plane to Salt Lake City weekly for rumba dancing lessons.

Each year, he invited everyone in Moab to parties at the airport hangar.

He gave $50,000 toward a new Moab hospital and donated land for churches and schools throughout the area.

Moab Crowned Itself the “Uranium Capital of the World”

During the boom, Moab called itself the “Uranium Capital of the World.”

Charlie started several companies: Utex Exploration, Moab Drilling Company, Mi Vida Company, Big Indian Mines, and Uranium Reduction Company.

His success led to politics when Utah voters picked him for State Senate in 1958, though he quit in 1961, unhappy with political life.

He built a huge 27,000 square foot mansion in Reno, Nevada near the historic Comstock millionaire Sandy Bowers’ home.

The IRS Took Everything and Left Charlie Broke

By the late 1950s, the U.S. government had stockpiled enough uranium for its nuclear weapons program and stopped supporting high prices by 1960.

In February 1968, IRS agents seized Charlie’s Reno headquarters and assets in a “jeopardy assessment” for back taxes.

He filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in May 1968, and it took eleven years to settle with the federal government.

Charlie lost his entire $130 million fortune through lavish spending and financial troubles, and died in poverty on January 1, 2006.

Visiting Arches National Park, Utah

You can explore Charlie Steen’s uranium discovery story at Arches National Park, just 5 miles north of Moab on Highway 191.

Entry costs $15 per vehicle, plus a $2 timed reservation from April-July and late August-October between 7am-4pm.

Visit the Charlie Steen historical marker at Anticline Overlook 32 miles south of Moab, then dine at Sunset Grill restaurant in his former $250,000 hilltop mansion overlooking town.

This article was created with AI assistance and human editing.

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