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BLM site files conducted on September 2, 1986 revealed that no sites have been recorded in the project area itself. The National Register of Historic Places lists no cultural resource properties in the project area. A cultural resource survey was conducted for the Orchard Valley Mine by Centuries Research Inc. in 1977 (Baker 1977). Although Section 24 was "surveyed" at that time, the survey was not intensive, but was done as part of an inventory of "obvious and/or historically known sites" located within a 1 mi buffer zone around their defined Impact Area A. This survey seems to have consisted only of spot checks of homesite as reported by local informants (Baker 1977:8). Culture History The cultural history of the area spans approximately 10,000 years. It is commonly divided into five stages, which include the Paleo-Indian Stage (ca. 10,000 to 5500 B.C.), the Archaic Stage (5500 B.C. to A.D. 1), the Formative Stage (A.D. 1 to 1300), the Protohistoric/Historic Aboriginal Stage (A.D. 1300 to 1881), and the Euro-American Stage (A.U. 1776 to present). Detailed information on the West-Central Colorado prehistoric context and the Colorado historical archaeology context is available in the Colorado Historical Society's RP-3 documents (Reed 1984; Buckles and Buckles 1984). The prehistoric cultures are all generally characterized as hunting • and gathering groups, with the Paleo-Indians focusing on several now- extinct species of large mammals, and the Sequent Archaic and Ute peoples relying on an expanded collection of wild plants and smaller, modern game animals. Scattered finds of Paleo-Indian Stage projectile points suggests that the area may have been occasionally utilized by these peoples. Archaic sites are abundant throughout west-central Colorado. Ute sites are also common, as the Utes remained in the area until their removal in 1881. The earliest recorded European exploration of the North Fork Valley was the well-known Dominguez-Escalante Expedition in 1776. The valley remained Ute Indian Territory until September 4, 1881, when the Utes were expelled and the reservation was opened to settlement. The origi- nal settlers of the North Fork Valley were cattle ranchers. Fruit production became the predominant industry around the turn of the century and is still important today. The other significant economic activity in the North Fork area is coal mining, which began on a large- scale around 1902 (Baker 1977: 16-25). FIELD METHODS The eastern portion of the proposed 46kV transmission line corridor was surveyed by means of a pedestrian inventory along the staked center- line. The survey was accomplished by the archaeologist walking up one side of the 800 m (2600 ft) - long by 30 m (100 ft) - wide right-of-way and returning down the other side. Ground visibility of this portion of • the corridor was good. 3