Laserfiche WebLink
ABSTRACT <br />At the request of Bureau of Land Management Little Snake Field Office (BLM-LSFO), <br />Grand River Institute (GRI) was contracted by Trapper Mining, Inc. to conduct evaluative <br />testing for site 5MF7762. The site was first documented during GRI's Class III Cultural <br />Resources Inventory of a Lease Modification Area for Trapper Mining, Inc. in 2013. Test <br />excavations at the site were conducted intermittently between August and October of 2015. <br />A broadly inclusive testing of the site included auger, small shovel pit, and trench <br />testing. Also, two areas were selected for limited block unit testing due to the presence of <br />suspected thermal features. As a result, the site produced diagnostic artifacts and radiocarbon <br />data from two samples that indicated a Formative Era base camp was established there between <br />about 1000-1100 AD. Other limited use of the site is indicated during the historic period by a <br />third radiocarbon sample, and possible camping also occurred during the Late Archaic and <br />Middle Archaic periods, as indicated by two temporally diagnostic artifacts. However, due to a <br />drying/erosional episode soon after the Formative occupation, the site's cultural deposits were <br />eroded and the observed possible hearth features were completely deflated. Accordingly, the <br />testing indicated that although the site produced chronometric data, it is unlikely to yield <br />additional significant information concerning the prehistory of the region and is field <br />reevaluated as not eligible for listing on the National Register of Historic Places. <br />ii <br />