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RULE 2 PERMITS <br />2.04.4 Cultural and Historic Resource Information <br />The objectives of this section is to meet the requirements of Rule 2.04.4 et seq by furnishing Cultural and <br />Historic Resource Information for the permit revision area in sufficient detail to determine the presence of <br />cultural and historic resources listed or eligible for listing on the National Register of Historic Places and <br />known significant archaeological sites. <br />General Description of Permit Area Resource <br />The permit area is near the edge of the Yampa River drainage and the White River drainage is within a <br />few miles to the south. Jubb Creek is an ephemeral drainage, while Good Spring Creek to the east and <br />Wilson Creek and Collum Gulch to the west are perennial streams. All of these drainages flow <br />northeasterly to Milk Creek, a tributary of the Yampa River. Dominant bedrock includes sandstones, <br />shales, and coal beds of the Cretaceous Williams Fork and Iles formations, and the underlying Cretaceous <br />Mancos Shale to the north. Sediments are typically residual on the ridgetops and upper slopes, colluvial <br />on the lower slopes, and colluvial and alluvial on the valley floors. The depositional environment is <br />generally degrading with fairly localized pockets of alluviall or eolian aggradation. This provides few <br />settings favorable for in-situ archaeological materials. <br />Vegetation in the permit area includes tall sagebrush scrub and sagebrush meadows with thickets of <br />mountain mahogany, serviceberry, and chokecherry. Aspen groves are present on some of the higher <br />areas and juniper are scattered through the area. Valley bottoms are generally narrow with very steep <br />sides. Valley and gulch slopes are frequently 30 to 60 percent grade or greater, but ridgetops are wide <br />and gently sloping. <br />Larger animals currently in the area include deer, elk, bear, and mountain lion, and bison were present <br />prehistorically. Smaller animals include coyote, fox, marmots, chipmunks, snakes, and birds. The area is <br />used for grazing, predominantly by sheep and cattle. The general area is dotted with range improvements <br />such as stock ponds and windmills with stock tanks. Some areas in the broader valleys of perennial <br />drainages are cultivated, but smaller valleys of ephemeral drainages are not. <br />General Cultural and Historic Resources Information <br />Existing Data and Literature Review — Cultural resources include historical or archaeological objects, <br />sites, buildings, structures, districts, or traditional cultural properties. Significant historic properties <br />include those sites or objects that are listed in or eligible for listing in the Register. The project area is <br />within the prehistoric context for the Northern Colorado River Basin (Reed and Metcalf 1999) and the <br />Colorado Plateau Country Historic Context (Husband 1984). <br />Prehistoric Context — Northern Colorado River Basin context encompasses the portion of western <br />Colorado that is drained by the northern stretch of the Colorado River and includes several major <br />tributaries of the Colorado River: the Green, Yampa, White, Gunnison, Uncompahgre, San Miguel, and <br />Dolores rivers. Like many other regions, the vast majority of cultural resources recorded in this region <br />are known only from surface evidence and lack temporally diagnostic artifacts or other evidence of age or <br />cultural affiliation. Human settlement in the area is firmly documented from the earliest known <br />inhabitants of North America, the Paleoindians, and continues through the Protohistoric period. A brief <br />chronology summarized below (Reed and Metcalf 1999) describes the hallmarks of the major <br />chronological divisions: <br />South Taylor/Lower Wilson — Rule 2, Page 5 Revision Date: 4/7/17 <br />Revision No.: RN -07 <br />