What is in a name? If you have assumed that the West End town of Nucla was named for its role in nuclear energy, think again. The community’s name was from the founders’ dream of a cooperative community which would become the “nucleus” for surrounding farms and ranches. Nucla has a history unlike any of the surrounding communities, so read on.

The Utes had roamed the region for centuries and called it Tabeguache, which means “the sunny side” or “where the snow melts first” in their language.

Several prehistoric sites on the Colorado State Register of Historic Properties are located nearby. Cottonwood Cave is a rock shelter dating back to 270 BCE, where the earliest corn was found in Colorado.

Tabeguache Cave, with its petroglyphs, was a shelter for the ancient Puebloans, and the Tabeguache Pueblo is a larger settlement, which was abandoned in 1100 AD.

Fast forward 700 years. At the end of the Civil War, the Colorado Cooperative Company in Denver began with the dream of an “idyllic” society in which everyone contributed labor and shared all goods and resources. Their most successful settlement was in Greeley in the early 1870s, and the group hoped to create a similar community in western Montrose County. In 1894 10 men and one woman arrived by train in Montrose to begin their new lives. These settlers rode on horses or in wagons over the rough 20-mile route west to their new homeland, which they named Pinion after the local vegetation.

After creating their shelters, the need for a better water source was apparent. They decided to build a 17-mile ditch from the San Miguel River to Tabeguache Park.

More immigrants arrived, and by 1896 Pinon was the second largest city in Montrose County. The town had 50 frame buildings including an icehouse, print shop, commissary, library, school, assembly hall, carpenter shop, barns and cabins. The residents also began constructing their water ditch to the San Miguel River.

The ditch-digging community faced hardships during the construction. Workers received labor certificates, not cash, which they used to get water, food and other supplies from the commissary. Food and water were rationed.

With the ditch project completed, water began flowing in 1904. The residents decided to move their settlement to a nearby rocky shelf to reserve all lands suitable for farming and ranching. The townspeople dismantled the buildings in Pinon and moved them nearby. They renamed the community Nucla to reflect the founders’ vision to be a nucleus for the region.

Mining took off in the early 1900s. Prospectors found pockets of uranium, vanadium and carnotite in Montrose and Delta counties. These radioactive ore samples were sent to Marie Curie’s laboratory in Paris, which confirmed that the region’s carbonite had rich radium deposits. With this news, the latest mineral rush was on, and prospectors poured into the Colorado Plateau. After the Standard Chemical Company built a processing plant in 1913, Montrose County became the world’s largest supplier of radium.

Nuclear weapons programs around the world were ramping up beginning in 1935, and uranium prices soared. The 1940s brought a new population boom to the area. Uranium for the atomic bombs used at the end of World War II came from the Uravan Belt and was shipped directly to the Trinity Site in New Mexico. People had jobs in the mines and the community thrived.

Following the war, uranium prices dropped over the next 30 years. Mining operations ceased, and people began moving away.

In more recent times, Nucla has had several other newsworthy events. They held the first Top Dog World Championship Prairie Dog Shoot in 1990 during which 3,000 animals were killed. In 2013 the Nucla Town Board passed an ordinance requiring every head of household to own a firearm. The community still celebrates Water Days commemorating the construction of their irrigation ditch every July.

If you are looking for a beautiful drive this fall, head over to Nucla. The Unaweep Tabegauche Byway (Colorado highways 141 and 145) is 133 miles long, and you will travel through red sandstone canyons, old mining areas, and small communities along the San Miguel River. The recently developed Rimrocker Trail is a rougher 160-mile route (four-wheel or OHV) that goes from Montrose to Moab, Utah.

Sources include montrosepress.com, gjsentinel.com, cpr.org, telluridenews.com, coloradolibray.org, and uncovercolorado. com. Carolyn Snowbarger is a retired educator. After teaching middle schoolers in Olathe, Kansas, for 28 years, she and her husband Vince moved to Washington, D.C. She directed the Teacher-to-Teacher Initiative at the U.S. Department of Education and then managed continuing education programs for the American Institute of Architects. The Snowbargers moved to Ridgway in 2013 after decades of San Juan family vacations.