Crime Scene and Trauma Cleanup in Monticello, UT

Monticello, pronounced MON-tiss-EL-oh, is a city in and the county seat of San Juan County, Utah, and the county's second most populous city, with 1,824 residents counted in the 2020 census.

The Monticello area was settled in July 1887 by pioneers from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, after leaders struggling to farm along the unpredictable San Juan River chose the higher country at the base of the Abajo Mountains, also called the Blue Mountains.

Monticello was named in honor of Thomas Jefferson's estate, became the county seat in 1895, and was incorporated as a city in 1910.

The city rests at the base of the Abajo Mountains on the Colorado Plateau, at an elevation of about 7,069 feet, giving it cooler temperatures year-round.

Monticello and much of San Juan County grew during the uranium boom from the late 1940s to the early 1960s, when several uranium and vanadium mines opened nearby and the federal government operated a uranium processing mill in Monticello from 1948 to 1960.

The Happy Jack Mine in White Canyon, founded by Monticello natives Fletch Bronson and Joe Cooper, was the second-richest deposit of high-grade uranium ore in the nation, after the MiVida Mine, also in San Juan County.

After the boom, the U.S. Department of Energy conducted a massive cleanup from 1989 to 2004 to remove radioactive material from lands and buildings and restore the former mill site.

Monticello's population more than doubled during the uranium boom, then fell from 1,972 in 2010 to 1,824 in 2020.

The Abajo Mountains and surrounding areas offer hiking and hunting, and fishing is available at Foy Lake, Monticello Lake, and Lloyds Lake in the Blue Mountains.

Monticello is the gateway community for the southeastern entrance to Canyonlands National Park and lies along U.S. Route 191, just south of Moab.