A new podcast unearths Colorado’s forgotten uranium ‘Boom Town’

On Colorado’s Western Slope a single sign represents a mining town that was once there. The town helped provide the uranium in the first atomic bomb. The town was called Uravan. 

Journalist Alec Cowan has long been fascinated by stories of Uravan. Cowan grew up in nearby Grand Junction and remembers hearing urban legends about Uravan. Officials closed and buried the town in the 1980s due to radiation concerns.  

Cowan set out to record interviews with former residents of Uravan, and recently turned his research into a six-part podcast series. It's called Boom Town: A Uranium Story.  

In The NoCo’s Brad Turner talked with Cowan to hear about this largely forgotten corner of Colorado. 

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Host and Producer: Erin O'Toole
Producer: Ariel Lavery
Executive Producer: Brad Turner

Theme music by Robbie Reverb
Additional music by Blue Dot Sessions

In The NoCo is a production of KUNC News and Community Radio for Northern Colorado.