Finding My Grandpa’s Hidden Uranium Mine in Utah

My grandpa mined uranium somewhere around Tomsich Butte in Utah’s San Rafael Swell more than 70 years ago. My dad remembers coming out here with him as a kid, working around the mine and sleeping in a small cabin on the butte. The problem is, nobody in the family seems to remember exactly where the mine was. So I headed into the Swell to see what I could find. I spent the day exploring old uranium workings around Tomsich Butte, found more mine adits than I knew what to do with, stumbled across some surprisingly large pieces of petrified wood, checked out the Hondoo Arch, and may have even found the collapsed remains of the cabin my dad remembers sleeping in. Did I actually find Grandpa’s mine? Well… that part is still up for debate. 😂 But getting to explore a place my grandpa and dad walked around all those years ago made for one hell of a day in the desert.