2014-10-10_PERMIT FILE - C1996083 (3)

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LITERATURE OVERVIEW FOR CULTURAL RESOURCES Cultural resource investigations in the region have yielded surface diagnostic artifacts and excavated cultural materials consistent with the regional cultural history. In general, local and regional archaeological studies suggest there was nearly continuous human occupation of west - central Colorado for the past 13,000 years. Evidence provided by chronometric diagnostic artifacts and radiocarbon analyses indicate regional occupation during the following Eras: Paleoindian (big -game hunting peoples, ca. 13,000 - 6500 BC), Archaic (hunter/ gatherer groups, ca. 6500 BC - AD 300), Formative (horticulturalists / foragers, ca. AD 300 - AD 1250), Pre -horse hunter /gatherers (Early Numic, ca. AD 1250 - AD 1550), and Historic (the early historic horse -riding nomads and historic tribes, Late Numic, ca. AD 1550 - AD 1920). An overview of the prehistory is provided in a new document published by the Colorado Council of Professional Archaeologists' entitled Colorado Prehistory: A Context for the Northern Colorado River Basin (Reed and Metcalf 1999). Historic records suggest occupation or use of the region by EuroAmerican explorers, trappers, settlers, miners, and ranchers. Significantly, the Spanish expedition of Dominquez and Escalante, which passed near the study area along Hubbard Creek in 1776, was the first Euro- American incursion into the area. Removal of the Utes in 1881 freed the valley of the North Fork of the Gunnison for agricultural development, railroad construction, and permanent settlement. By the mid- 1880's this alluvial valley had been found suitable for fruit growing. Valley hay production combined with summer range in the surrounding mountains aided the establishment of a prosperous livestock industry until a severe winter kill in 1893 reduced many of the herds. The construction of an extension of the D &RG Railroad into the North Fork Valley by 1902 (as far as Paonia) aided fruit growers and cattlemen. Additional track laid into Somerset in subsequent years (by 1906) initiated the coal mining boom. Overviews of the history of the region are provided in the Colorado Historical Society's publication entitled Colorado Plateau Country Historic Context (Husband 1984) and in the Bureau of Land Management's publication Frontier in Transition (O'Rourke 1980). Significantly, a relatively new historical context has been published by the Colorado Council of Professional Archaeologists entitled Colorado History: A Context for Historical Archaeology (Church et al. 2007). STUDY OBJECTIVES / RESEARCH DESIGN The purpose of the cultural resources investigation was to identify resources within the survey area, to evaluate these sites' eligibility for listing in the National Register of Historic Places (NRHP), and to make management recommendations for those sites found to be eligible or potentially eligible. The presence of cultural resources was considered likely due to previously recorded sites in the region. Additionally, historic resources appear in the project boundary on the USGS 7.5 minute quadrangle maps. Due to the lack of recorded fossil findings in the upper Mesaverde, the potential for finding fossils in this member was considered to be very low. 14