New-York tribune., 1921-04-10
From a Worthless Stretch
of C0Iorad0-Utah DeS-
ert Comes the Basis of
Americas GnttoMn1e.
Curie, Carnotite Ore.
Germany, Before the
War, Nearly Owned 1t
W. HEN Nine. Marie Curie visits
wv the United States in May and
y,yoconfoS Will, J;,,,~,

w 7 HEN NINE. Marie Cure visits
w the United States in May and
is presented with radium
valued at 100000 from the women of
this country it will be truly an all
American gift which she will receive.
Out in the grim. broken, sage-covered
desert where southern Colorado and
Utah meet, there is produced the carno-
tite ore from which most of the worlds
supply of radium is recovered. Valua-
hle mines have been located in arid
gq,lches that were worthless even for
cattle grazing. Concentrating mills have
been erected and little mining settle
ments have grown up where not even the
courageous dry farmer planted his
homestakes a few years ago. Burros
loaded with sacks of rich radium-bear-
ing concentrates pick their way along
rough trails to the dusty highways that
reach out into the not less dusty desert.
Their burdens are shifted to ore wagons
-one wagon and trailer to a six-horse
team usually-and there is much rat
ting of tires and cracking of whips and
hnging of oaths as the teamsters jolt
their way to the nearest railway Sta
tion perhaps fifty or seventy-five miles
distant.
Sacks of Ore Yield
Pin-Point of Rodiuna
At the railroad the sacks of canary
colored ore, which have been sorted from
countless tons of worthless or low grade
surrounding rock, are shipped to q re-
duction plant in the East-Mme. Curie
is to visit one at Pittsburgh, according
to dispatches-and, through long and
expensive process. involving much set
Ting in tanks, the precious element is
secured, pin-point by pin-point.
Nine. Curie has expressed desire to
visit the radium fields, if the trip is pos
sible, and also to see the best of Ameri-
can scenery. Her route will be through
land of grandeur if she visits the car
notite fields of Colorado. There is only
one route to the radium country-the
Denver & Rio Grande Railroad out of
Denver. Crossing the Continental Di-
vide at one of it's sublimest points, after
having transferred to the narrowgauge
line, Nine Curie will find herself in the
Uncompahgre Valley. Here the govern
ment has brought water from the Gun
nison River through an amazingly long
and costly tunnel. and irrigated fruit
farms have sprung up where there was
only sagebrush matter of fifteen years
ago. AS the lower end of the valley ap-
proaches the Utah line the desert effect
gets more pronounced. The country is
more broken and the sagebrush is in the
"'SS>AANoASye nC 40lIOQQ SW1lS0 Vlk All
another direction, Placerville being the
final station. Beyond Placerville the
country has scant visitation of water.
AS it drops away toward the Utah line
1t becomes dryer and more desert-like in
It's character. There are few trees on
the hills, and occasional erosions of
sandstone rear their heads -strange
formations which increase in number
and size as one journeys further out on
tne great plateau that stretches toward
the Colorado River.
<iper Fixed Fots
Ut Paradox Valley
The valleys here would be just as rich
as the Uncompahgre If they could be
watered, but there is not Gunnison to
oe harnessed by government engineers
az every turn In the hills, and water is
Such a Scarco orfinyo ~, r~o,,o,.o1 +I,o+ ~