Yellowcake boomtown

[1][5] The sense of urgency to find and extract uranium and uranium-bearing ores was fueled by the rapidly developing nuclear weapons stockpile in response to the nuclear-arms race between the U.S. and the Soviet Union.

[5] Examples of yellowcake boomtowns are Grants, New Mexico; Moab, Utah; Jeffrey City, Wyoming; and Uravan, Colorado, although there are many others throughout the American West, and in other countries.

[1][6] Like many yellowcake boomtowns, Jeffrey City, Wyoming grew rapidly during the Cold War era from a "trailer town" to a bustling community after the development of uranium mining and processing facilities there.

By the early 1980s, Jeffrey City had reached its apex (population 4,500);[7] the mine shut down in 1982 and by 1988 the town had "gone bust" after the uranium mill had been decommissioned.

[7] Moab, Utah, known as the "Uranium Capital of the World", is also considered a yellowcake boomtown, although its population has sustained due to tourism at the nearby Arches National Park.

In 1960, Mines Development was issued citations by the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission for failure to conduct required airborne radioactivity tests in areas used by employees.

Because no reclamation laws existed at the time requiring companies to clean up their environmental messes, abandoned mines remain in the Edgemont area to this day.