Mount Sopris* Instrument Company was founded by Colorado natives in 1951 at a time when locating uranium for weapon and reactor use was of national interest; consequently, our first product was a portable scintillation counter. This hand-held instrument was built to enhance the capabilities of the US Geological Survey in locating radioactive materials. From its inception until the early 1970's, Mount Sopris built thousands of scintillation counters, that were widely used by government and private companies around the world.
Soon after our establishment, Mount Sopris joined forces with another small Colorado company, one that made respirators for use by polio victims. This unlikely team lasted only five years: the demand for uranium decreased, and, with the availability of the Salk vaccine, polio was under control, reducing respirator sales.
Although Mount Sopris temporarily closed its doors, our founders retained their interest in geophysical instrumentation. In 1962 Mount Sopris was reborn in a residential basement near Delta, Colorado. Business grew steadily in the '60's and we focused our manufacturing efforts toward portable borehole geophysical instrumentation for the natural resource and geological communities.
In the '70's our Model 1000-C portable logger quickly became the standard by which others were measured, and exports grew geometrically, essentially because of our association with government agencies such as the Atomic Energy Commission, the US Geological Survey, and the US Bureau of Mines. 1000-C loggers were shipped to over 50 countries, and the company location in western Colorado proved to be perfect -- within 150 miles of our facility in Delta, oil, oil-shale & and natural gas, coal, and uranium were abundant, and the need for portable geophysical loggers was strong due to increased drilling activity.
Our line of borehole logging instrumentation grew as our place in the world market solidified. A culmination of efforts peaked in the mid '80's with the addition of over 50 employees, a technology-transfer agreement in China, and exports throughout the Middle East, Africa, and Asia.
After a temporary move to Northern California from 1989 to 1991, another small Colorado company purchased the assets of Mount Sopris and brought us to Golden, Colorado. Although our manufacturing facility is not within sight of Mount Sopris, our staff organizes annual treks to its summit (12,900'). Since 1991 we have focused on quality borehole geophysical instrumentation to meet the needs of the geotechnical, natural resource, and environmental communities. With emphasis on reliable, functional, user-friendly systems designed to work with any portable computer, Mount Sopris systems are operating in over 100 countries today.
Our partners, Advanced Logic Technology, srl (ALT) in Luxembourg, have created WellCAD software, probably the most used log presentation and analysis software in the world today. Together, ALT and Mount Sopris provide leading edge borehole geophysical software and hardware.
