Charlie Steen

In 1943, Charles Steen graduated with a degree in geology from the Texas College of Mines and Metallurgy in El Paso. Afterwards, he worked as a petroleum geologist in Bolivia and Peru before he began his search for uranium in 1949. Prospecting the remote and desolate canyons of the Colorado Plateau, Steen was assisted by his wife M.L., and his four young sons. Steen’s “rags-to-riches saga” made him “the country’s uranium king” according to Moab, Utah’s The Canyon Country Zephyr. His adventuresome nature and a series of bad investments eventually cost him most of his fortune. He was also seriously affected by a head injury he received when a drill fragment stuck him in the head, curtailing his prospecting career. The College of Mines graduate who became a multi-millionaire claimed that his uranium discovery saved the U.S. government “in excess of $2 billion dollars of foreign purchase” of the mineral. In the same letter written to President Nixon, the “uranium king” wrote: “this discovery placed our country in a have as opposed to a have not position as a nuclear power.” Mr. Steen is certainly one of the most fascinating of University of Texas at El Paso alumni. In recognition of his accomplishments, Steen even led the Homecoming parade of 1958. In 2002, the town of Moab, Utah commemorated Charlie and his wife M.L. Steen with a special plaque celebrating the 50th anniversary of Steen’s prominent find. http://transformations.utep.edu/?p=1082

Area: Central / University