Prologue
Vernon J. Pick was recognized internationally in the 1950’s by major newspapers, magazines, and his friends and associates, Werner Von Braun, H.L. Hunt, Claude Langton, Floyd Odlum, et al, as the “Uranium King of America.” LIFE Magazine published an article entitled: Vernon Pick’s 10 Million-Dollar Ordeal, by Robert Coughlan on November 1, 1954. That weekly issue cover story was read internationally with enthusiasm and led to Vernon Pick being pursued, taunted, and haunted relentlessly by promoters of all kinds.
Moreover, in Dallas, TX, the famous billionaire, H.L. Hunt, and his sons, Bunker, Herbert and Lamar, also perused it, but most particularly, so did my father, Claude M. Langton, the Chief Geologist and Exploration Manager for Hunt Oil Co.
After dad discussed Coughlan’s LIFE story of Pick with the Hunt family, he came home and handed the magazine to my mother, Irma, and me, his teenage son. I think he wanted to coyly reinforce an authentic prospector’s serendipitous dream-come-true in our hearts, since several months before Coughlan’s story was published, dad and I had shared a campfire with Vernon Pick at his famous DELTA uranium mine in southern Utah.
Perplexed, I was, as dad told mom and me that Coughlan had created a paradoxical monster for Pick. However, he quickly added, “The LIFE cover story was so well done that the end product of Pick’s international publicity . . . would probably teach Vernon a lesson about his own motto, ‘All Trappers Don’t Wear Fur Hats!’” Dad speculated that both Vernon and his loyal wife, Ruth, would not have enough insect repellent to ward off forthcoming con-artist parasites yearning to help him spend his hard-earned millions.
He was right.
Forty-seven years later in this new millennium “Space Odyssey,” I want to expose the complete truism of Pick’s and my father’s joint activities concerning the Ten Million Dollar Ordeal and the fascinating aftermath, which has never been fully told. I also want to portray the personality and compassion of the greatest prospector, philosopher, mentor, employer, pilot, and lifetime buddy I ever knew.
Distance and the turmoil of Vernon’s final, physical last days never interfered with our friendship. We would periodically rendezvous to discuss the trials and tribulations of the hard-rock mining and petroleum industries, as well as the associated revelry accompanying big business in the fast lane. Our clandestine joint venture investments from Vernon’s homes in British Columbia and Switzerland added more spice to our lives, sealing our relationship.
This piece of history has been compiled mostly from my personal notes, periodic diaries and scrapbooks. Enhanced by several publications and annual reports of Phelps Dodge Corporation (1966-76) and Superior Oil Company (1976-84). Conversations I have related between Vernon and the cast of many characters, held in my absence, are as close to being accurate as I can remake them. They are constructed from the many times I listened to Vernon retell those stories and from my notes about his unpublished writings I had read and edited in Biel, Switzerland.
Firstly, I reiterate the substance of Coughlan’s article about Vernon Pick’s discovery. Secondly, I share prospecting excursions by the prospector and his protégé into the Alaskan and Canadian Arctic. Thirdly, I offer the wild ride this protégé had, until Vernon’s death, in becoming an international explorationist on five continents, mostly for Howard B. Keck and the now defunct, but infamous, Superior Oil Company. Vernon’s influence is felt all along the way.
So now it is written; so let it be read and enjoyed!
—Jack Langton
