It all began in 1918 in the Carrizo Mountains. Here, the first Arizona uranium was mined as a byproduct of vanadium production. Production in the state completely stopped around 1921 and this continued until 1941. A 25 year long boom then exploded across the state. From 1941 to 1966 Arizona produced about 13,760,000 pounds of U3O8 in just four main districts. That is enough to make over 1,500 warheads.

Utah was an early bloomer with uranium mining starting around 1900. First, as a byproduct of vanadium production before becoming a byproduct of radium production. Then switching back to a vanadium byproduct in the 1920’s when radium went bust. Like Arizona, Utah had an uranium boom between 1940 and the 1950’s. The boom ended sooner in Utah vs Arizona, but low scale production lasted much longer into 2001. To this day many uranium mines in Utah are considered mothballed and not abandoned.