Copyright and Creative Commons
Copyright applies to all the images and text on the Uranium City History’s website and are covered by a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International Public License. You are free to share and adapt the material for non-commercial purposes, as long as you give appropriate credit, provide a link to the license, and indicate if changes were made. You may not use the material for commercial purposes without permission from the copyright holder. The full definition of the license is given on this webpage. If you want to use any images or text, then you should first visit that link and read carefully.
Two important aspects of the license: first, you must attribute any images belonging to me to the Uranium City History website. Images or text contributed by anyone else must be attributed to them by name and to the page on on the Uranium City History website from which they were taken from.
Second, the non-commercial part of the license means you cannot use the recordings for any purpose where you’re seeking to make a profit or expecting to be paid. Please don’t disregard that rule!
About This Site
This is in some ways a personal site reflecting my long off and on association with Uranium City. Like a documentary film, I use this site to explore the town, the history and culture of the North, the nuclear industry and its effects, the mystery of abandonment, but most of all the history of this small town where I was lucky enough to grow up and visit many times since. I lived in UC for two parts of my young life: from the mid-’60s to the very early ’70s when I was very young (my memories of this period are vague and mostly second-hand), then later in the late ’70s when I was in my teens, and the town was growing fast and seemed set to continue for decades, perhaps indefinitely, as a model northern town.
I went back as an adult fourteen years after the mine very abruptly closed, with just six months notice, in June, 1982. I stayed one week, and went back another four times, the last, in August, 2022. In February, 2003, I went back with a producer and co-director Ole Gjerstad, and Dave Segerts, long-time resident and cinematographer, in an attempt to make a documentary film. We had exploration funding from the NFB, CBC, APTN, spent 10 days shooting in -40 degree weather. Alas, conditions in the Canadian film and TV industry changed that year, and we had difficulty securing more funding and all that remains from that shoot is 30+ hours of raw footage, most in a format not easily digitized. Over time that some of that footage will appear on this site, along with all and any other material I can secure from across the web: publications, company records, broadcast footage, archives personal and official, as well as stories and other content from individual contributors.
Along with my own recollections, I hope to collect the memories of anyone who cares to write in, send photos, images, video, or whatever else they might want to contribute. Much of the writing on this site is necessarily subjective, formed out of my own experiences and memories, or the experiences and memories of individual contributors. I hope that by collecting these stories artifacts in one place I can eventually provide a history of Uranium City, the industry behind it, the inter-twining of white and native Canadians that gave, and continues to give, Uranium City, and the area round it, such a distinctive character.
This site is under development, with new features and content being rolled out regularly.
Hi There,
My grandpa used to be mayor of Uranium City. His name was Al McMillian. Is there any pictures of Him from this time?
Cheers,
Jamie Erickson
Hi Jamie,
I’m not sure. You might want to check with the ‘Uranium City Friends‘ facebook page, perhaps someone there might have something.
Are you related to Wes Erickson by chance? We went to school together and still correspond sometimes.
Best of luck,
Tim
Hi. I am researching a family that used to live in Uranium City, and am looking for images from a high school yearbook from about 1958 or 1959. Any ideas?
Hi Grant – sorry for the delay in getting back. I was born in 1965, so . . . no. You might try the Uranium City Friends facebook page. It has a lot of members and some of the older members might be able to help you. Best of luck!
Best, Tim
i worked as a millwright for only 6 months in about 1965. then some time later for about the same length of time. Metro Grona was by boss. am i on the rite site to find out if where and when somewhere in Sask. this summer there people that meet and who is welcome.? thanks
?
Hi Brian,
Thanks for your message. I remember a Metro Grona, though I was only born in ’65. Are you on Facebook? There is a facebook page at Uranium City Friends. I also know most of the people on the reunion committee. I should post some information on this site. It will be held this summer but I’m not sure where they decided to have – or if they have. Last time I believe it was somewhere north of Saskatoon.
I’ll pass on what information I can find.
Best, Tim
Hello,
Question: How does one get to Uranium City? I heard that you may only access it through ice roads which occur solely in the winter, and I’ve observed it’s small regional airport. Perhaps the rivers/lakes too? Otherwise, is there really nothing? Seems scary to me. Maybe it’s all those northern SK lakes looking like little holes in the ground that you could fall into and never see the known world ever agian.
Hi Maxwell – Sorry for the long delay!!! I somehow missed this.
No you can visit without having to use the ice road. Rise Air, out of Saskatoon, has thrice-weekly flights north, with stopovers in Prince Alberta, La Ronge, Points North and Stoney Rapids. It ain’t cheap and the weight restrictions are onerous, but you can get there. If were adventurous – and a skilled boatman – you can cross Lake Athabasca, but the lake is volatile and conditions can change easily. There are places to stay in town as well, including a number of lodges on surrounding lakes like this one, where a friend of mine works: https://indianheadfishinglodge.ca/. There are many others – a quick google search brought out five.
I’ll have to ask friends in town about in-town accomodation. Again, it ain’t cheap, but it’s there. There’s also a lot of exploration going on now, including a potential gold mine on the old Goldfields site (https://uraniumcity-history.com/places/goldfields/) and a rare earth holding on Alces Lake. Around 70 people remain as long-term residents though that number swells in the summer, with townspeople returning for a few months and exploration. Generally, if you haven’t got it from the photos on the site (Here are some photos, all taken by people who currently live in UC: https://uraniumcity-history.com/uranium-city-now/) this can be a beautiful part of the world, very unlike the rest of Saskatchewan. Fabulous fishing, if that’s your thing. I caught three nice trout without even trying too hard when I was back a couple of years ago and I hadn’t fished in decades.
I’ll found out about accomodation and post it here.
Best, Tim