Monticello

Monticello, city, seat (1895) of San Juan county, southeastern Utah, U.S. Founded in 1886 as a point of entry into the nearby Abajo Mountains and named after the Virginia estate of U.S. President Thomas Jefferson, the town grew as a centre for several ranches that hosted a thriving livestock industry. A vanadium-processing plant was built during World War II and converted to uranium production from 1949 until 1960; the former plant was the subject of an intensive federal hazardous-waste cleanup campaign throughout the 1990s. The city now serves as a tourist centre for nearby Canyonlands National Park. Inc. 1910. Pop. (2000) 1,958; (2010) 1,972.