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CJ <br />CLZTLRaL RESOL-RCE BaCKGROLI~ <br />ErLSTL\G DATA, <br />The nearby Jumbo Mountain Tract of the West Elk Mine has been previously described in S_oath <br />(1993:3) as follows: <br />The project is an area of effective overlap of the West-Central Colorado <br />Prehistoric Context (Reed 1987) and the Colorado Mountains Prehistoric Context <br />(Gutherie, et al., 1984). Neither study area has yielded evidence of frequent <br />prehistorc use of the sr.~b oak vegetatien zone durm= ~w of the prehistoric rime <br />periods. The earliest documented historic visit to ;he general area was the <br />Dominguez-Escalante expedition of 1776 that passed along the North For'.{ of she <br />Gunnison (Warner 1976:29). The area was within the range of Euro-Amercan <br />fur trapping activities in the early 1800s and was later influenced by ranching, <br />fruit farming and the expansion of coal mining (;vfehls 1982). Historic activities <br />in the area that would leave more than limited, transitory traces have generally <br />centered along the river valleys. <br />A total of sixteen cultural resource reports were identified for the vicinity of the proposed Jumbo <br />Mountain Tract (Table 2). The previous reports date from 1977 to 1994. Four of the reports <br />• cover field studies conducted on the Jumbo Tract property (hfetcalf Archaeological Consultants <br />1992; Spath 1993a, 1993b; Lennon and Mehls 1994). Three of the jumbo Mountain Tract <br />reports reported negative findings while Lennon and Niehls (1994) identified six historic sites <br />and an isolated artifact. A 1977 study (Class II and Class III) of the adjacent West Elk bfine <br />covered approximately 350 acres and Iocated two historic sites. The remainder of the studies <br />are located within a 2 to 3 mile vicinity of the study area. The most notable common <br />characteristic of these previous studies is the neg]igible amount of cultural resources recorded. <br />In a total of 16 projects only 8 historic sites and 2 isolated artifacts have been recorded. Based <br />upon these findings and given the similarity of the topography and vegetation within the Lone <br />Pine area of the West Elk Kline, it appeared likely that few, if any, cultural resources w•ouid be <br />located within the study area. <br />• <br />6 <br />