Vanadium Corporation of America (VCA) Naturita Mill, 3 miles Northwest of Naturita, between Highway 141 & San Miguel River, Naturita, Montrose County, CO

Significance: From the early 1940s to the end of the Cold War, the mill played a prominent role in national and international events related initially to the U.S. Army's WWII Manhattan Project, and later to the Atomic Energy Commission's efforts to procure and process domestic sources of uranium. Similarly, the mill played a central role in the socioeconomic development of western Montrose County for more than half a century, and it impacted the economic health of the entire Colorado Plateau as well. Following the facility's initial construction in the late 1920s, it was first used to process vanadium. Used as an alloy to strengthen and give steel greater elasticity, vanadium was vital to U.S. war production efforts during WWII.... Unprocessed Field note material exists for this structure: N311 Survey number: HAER CO-81 Building/structure dates: 1927 Initial Construction Building/structure dates: 1947 Subsequent Work Building/structure dates: 1960- 1961 Subsequent Work