2018-01-03_PERMIT FILE - C1981010 (6)

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(REX) and Wyoming Interstate Gas Company's Piceance Basin Lateral Pipeline (Piceance) in Moffat and Rio Blanco Counties, Colorado, and Sweetwater County, Wyoming, yielded only a single radiocarbon date for the Paleoindian Era (Reed and Metcalf 2009:4). Moreover, this date was obtained from a site in Wyoming (48SW8842). Similarly, archaeological investigations along these three pipelines resulted in the identification of only four projectile points out of 414 as belonging to the Paleoindian Era (Reed and Metcalf 2009:50). Archaic Era Reed and Metcalf (1999:6) have divided the Archaic Era into four periods as follows: Pioneer period: 6400-450OBC Settlement period 4500-250OBC Transitional period 2500-1000BC Terminal period 1000-40OBC The appearance of the Archaic Era reflects a shift in the availability of food resources caused by climatic changes at the end of the Pleistocene epoch. This shift is apparently responsible for a transition from a hunting/mobile subsistence pattern to a hunting- gathering/semi-sedentary one, based upon the more current species of flora and fauna. In Colorado's central mountains, the disappearance of the Cody Complex (Middle Paleoindian Period) is followed by a distinct Archaic Lifeway that may have developed in situ, as small scale immigration from adjacent areas, or as long-distance immigration (Black 1986:201). Black refers to this as the Mountain Tradition. Diagnostic artifacts from the earliest Archaic Era [Pioneer period] sites to those dating near the middle of that Era [early Settlement Period, dating roughly between 6500 to 3500 BC] include Pinto Series points, Gatecliff Split -stem points, and Mount Albion Complex points. From that time until about 1000 BC [end of the Transitional Period], a variety of large side- and corner -notched points, and the lanceolate - style McKean Complex and Humboldt Concave types (many of these exhibit grinding along the stem) are often found on local sites. The most recent period of the Archaic Era [Terminal Period] dates from about 1000 BC to possibly about 400 BC and could extend as late as AD 200 in west -central Colorado. A deeply corner -notched point similar to the Pelican Lake type from the Northern Plains is characteristic of this period, as are San Rafael Stemmed points, and the large contracting stem points that are collectively called Gatecliff Contracting Stem types. Archaeological investigations conducted along the CIG-UBL, REX, and Piceance pipelines (see Reed and Metcalf 2009) indicate that the Archaic Era is well represented in the general area of the present study. Sixty-nine percent of the components investigated yielded radiocarbon data for this Era. In addition, nearly half (37%) of the projectile points subject to analysis were identified as belonging to the Era. N.