1948 Borrego News: Uranium Ore Find In Badlands
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Heavy Deposits Discovered Near Borrego Valley
Los Angeles Times – October 26, 1948
Discovery of uranium-bearing ore in heavy quantities in the badlands area back of Borrego Valley, deep in San Diego County backcountry, was reported here last night. Word of the find by Fred Hinds, 50, itinerant sign painter-prospector, was brought to Los Angeles by Gaylord Johnson, Santa Monica commercial photographer, who was at Borrego Springs when Hinds made his discovery.
Location Undisclosed
Exact location of the deposit of carnotite ore was not disclosed by Hinds, but he indicated that he stumbled on the uranium field In an area known as the Badlands. This strip of weird desert terrain is a short distance from 17 Palms, near the source of San Felipe Creek, and bounded on the north by Arroyo Salada.
Johnson said Hinds told him that he first brought his sample chunks of bright yellow sulphur like ore into Borrego Springs, a new desert community.
There he tested them with an acetylene cutting torch for a melting point. Unlike sulphur deposits, the ore resisted the flame. Satisfied it was not sulphur, he took samples to an El Centro as-say office, where Geiger counter tests showed a reading of 20, considered fair for uranium-bearing ores.
U. S. Interested
Hinds next went to the mountain village of Julian in mid-San Diego County, where he borrowed a Geiger counter owned by G. J. Young, water superintendent for the city. There he got a reading of 38 on another sample; he told Johnson.
Young, the Julian official, told The Times by telephone early today that he could not disclose details of Hinds’ “strike,” but he said he “felt sure” the ore samples Hinds has are indicative of a highly productive uranium field.
Carnotite is an ore of uranium. At times in the early 20th century, it was mined primarily for radium or vanadium.
The mineral was used to produce quack devices involving radioactive substances.
“I understand Hinds has been In touch with government men- Atomic Energy Commission people and that they will be in Borrego Valley today or tomorrow,” Young said. “My counter was clicking rapidly on the ore sample. It didn’t reach a buzz-but I have an idea it will show some real action out on the location where Hinds got that sample.”
Sought Lost Mine
The desert-roving sign painter, who could become wealthy overnight as a result of his Badlands prowling, was hot on the trail of a treasure far more legendary than uranium when he found the carnotite field, he told Johnson.
“I’ve been trying for years to track down the Peg-Leg Smith mine that’s known to be located In an area surrounding the Badlands country,” Johnson said Hinds told him.
“Back in the hills, I found gold ore in a brown sandstone deposit, and was looking for more of it. I felt sick at my stomach after a while and couldn’t understand it. Then I remembered reading that uranium deposits act that way on a man’s system. I had been seeing large chunks of what I took to be sulphur, and decided to take some back and test it. That was the carnotite ore,” he told Johnson.
4 Days Later: 1948 News: URANIUM ORE BELIEVED IN STOLEN AUTO
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