It’s midmorning in Uravan, CO, on Easter Sunday. The San Miguel River runs thick and brown with spring mud through the desert canyon and the sky is cloudless. Bare trees cast shadows over the earth, which is mottled with sand and thick patches of the earliest wildflowers. Below the canopy of the picnic area a small group is gathering for an Easter Service. 

In the 1980s the federal government declared the Uranium mines in the area, and the town of Uravan itself, contaminated, and embarked on a decades-long clean up that involved relocating the town’s residents and scraping their homes from the earth. Around 10 years ago, the clean up was declared complete, and the old community ballpark was repurposed as a campground and picnic area. 

Gary Reeves, who was born in Uravan, says the Easter service taking place today dates back to the town itself. 

“We had a thing of sunrise services at crosses down at the cliffs above the forks of the river — the confluence of the San Miguel and Dolores Rivers every Easter,” Reeves recalls. “The church here in Uravan would do an Easter sunrise service at those crosses. Once the town went down, it pretty much stopped.” 

Reeves moved to Grand Junction when the Federal Government began its clean-up efforts. But he and his wife visited Uravan often, and at one point, he decided it was time to revive the tradition. 

“We stopped at the old place where the crosses were, and I looked at her and told her, ‘I think I want to get this started back up again.’ So that year I built some new crosses and we were doing it at the old spot down on the river. But so many of us – myself included and my parents at that time were getting older – couldn't crawl across the rocks to get to those crosses. So I think about four years ago we moved it here to the ballpark,” says Reeves. 

The sermon is offered by Pastor Mark Jones of Nucla, and Dan Williams, pastor at the New Hope Pentecostal Church in Naturita speaks as well. Jones says both men have faced medical difficulties in the past years, and the strength of the congregation has gotten them through. 

“Part of the reason that he and I are both here is because you guys pray. So from my standpoint I want to thank you for those prayers. I certainly want to thank God for allowing me to be here today, but I really want to thank all of you.”

The service is followed by a lunch, a long potluck of deviled eggs and beans, potato salad and coconut pies. Jordan Grant was born in Uravan and moved to Montrose. He says any opportunity to come back is a trip into memory. 

“Yeah it's pretty fun to see people you haven't seen for thirty years, forty years. But the terrain never changes. Every rock looks the same. But the town itself has kind of disappeared. It's nice to have this ballpark preserved for everyone to come visit,” Grant says. 

Alongside those from Uravan, the service brings together a collection of congregations from the area. Bonnie Yardley, of Nucla, said she came to see her Pastor speak, but agrees the whole West End is a place rich with history. 

“It’s a lot of memories,”  Yardley says. “My husband and I, we married in 1974. He worked in the mines for Union Carbide till they closed down. We’ve seen Nucla be a thriving town with stores to not very much now. But it’s still home,” she says. 

Amidst lunch, and sparkling blue skies, Uravan marks another Easter.