WSP08091

• File Number: 8147
• Description: Gunnison-Arkansas Project
• State: CO
• Water Division: 4
• Date: 6/1/1948
• Author: US DoI BoR
• Title: Interim Report Gunnison-Arkansas Project Colorado Appendix L Recreation
• Water Supply Pro - Doc Type: Report/Study

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SUbject to revision
to el iminate
Comprehensive Plan

SECTION

fQ!lli

~AISAL of ARCHEOLOGICAL RESOURCES

I. The Blue-South Platte and the units of the Gunnison-Arkansas Pro-

ject east of the Continental Divide, as reported on by the University

of Denver, follows:

From the preliminary surveying already accomplished, it can be
stated that the most promising areas are those lying east of the
Continental Divide, principally along the eastern foothills of the

Rocky Mountains, along the water courses on the adjacent plains.

This would include the reservoir sites along the South Platte proper,

between Denver and Deckers, Colorado, on the Arkansas diver dra~ge.

This area was occupied in historic times by the Cheyenne and

Arapaho Indians. Camp sites which probably represent the Dccupation

of these groups since 1800 are fairly frequent on or near all of the

reservoir sites. These are marked by quantities of chipped stone, by

occasional stone implements such as scrapers and projectile points,

and often by glass or metal objects obtained in trade frDill the whites.

Also, t;-ere occur circles of stDne, the so-called tipi rings some

of which may be older. These sites extend westward up the drainage of

both the South Platte and the Arkansas into the mountains and are usually

referred to by tI,e local collectDrs as Ute. However, until work has

been done which ~ill define and distinguish Ute culture Dver the past

four or five hundred years it seems unwise to apply the term Ute to this

material generally. These site5 represent a cultural and economic

pattern of the more or less classic Plains Indian type in the historic

period. The material shows that these people were nomadic, seldom

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