Grants - Once the Uranium Capital of the World
Grants began as a railroad camp in the 1880s, when three Canadian brothers - Angua, Lewis and John - were awarded a contract to build a section of the new Atlantic and Pacific Railroad through the region. The Grant brothers' camp was first called Grants Camp, then Grants Station, and finally Grants. The town prospered as a result of railroad logging in the nearby Zuni Mountains, and served as a section point for the Atlantic and Pacific, which became part of the Atchison, Topeka, and Santa Fe railroad empire.
Although Grants was founded in the late 1870s, the area itself had been inhabited since the 12th century, when the Anasazi established an advanced civilization in Chaco Canyon to the north. The Chaco included 40 underground ceremonial kivas and communal living quarters with more than 600 rooms. Although the Anasazi suddenly disappeared, anthropologists have been able to trace the roots of today's Native American Pueblo Indians living throughout western New Mexico to these ancient people.
Perhaps the most memorable boom in the town's history occurred when Paddy Martinez, a Navajo shepherd, discovered uranium ore near Haystack Mesa, sparking a mining boom that lasted until the 1980s. The collapse of mining pulled the town into a depression, but the town has enjoyed a resurgence based on interest in tourism and the scenic beauty of the region.
Today, Grants is a growing tourist destination favored for its fishing and boating at Bluewater and Ramah lakes and its proximity to Anasazi ruins and its outdoor recreation in national monuments and forests. Prehistoric sites also abound in the region, including nearby "Inscription Rock" at El Morro National Monument, El Malpais National Monument and Chaco Culture National Historic Park.
Grants is on the north end of the large and recent (youngest flows around 15,000 years old) lava field of El Malpais National Monument. The region is primarily high desert country, dominated by sandstones and lava flows. And, just 30 miles south in the heart of El Maloais, be sure to visit the Land of Fire and Ice, the Bandera Volcano and Ice Caves, where you can hike the rim of an 800 foot volcanic crater see a cave where the temperature never rises above 31%.
Sources:
Wikipedia Encyclopedia
Desert USA
