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West Elk Drill Pads, Panels 18 to 24, Cultural Report Iti _ ...a.._._... _ _ _ _ __...~.,.-..-__ .....-..,.-.. ~=~< Soils in the survey area aze light to medium brown residual medium fine loamy sands or sandy clay 5ta loamy with many boulders and bedrock outcrops. The soil is typically shallow and poorly consolidated, except in small areas of canyon floors. Local bedrock is predomuiantly sandstones and ,,,; ~'`,' shaIes of the Upper Cretaceous Mesaverde Formation. At several locations in the north flowing canyons there were exposures of river cobbles from one or more fossil river beds within the ~;= sandstones and conglomerates of the Tertiazy Ohio Creek Formation. Many of the water-rounded "'z cobbles and boulders were granitic Local ridges and mesas aze capped by resistant Mesa Verde sandstone. ~, ~~ Several vegetation zones were observed. Much of the western half of the West Flatiron is dominated by open sagebrush meadows and small groves of Gambel oak. Fir trees are located along the north and west facing slopes with a few individual trees atop the Flatiron. The eastern half of the West Flatiron is dominated by a mix of aspen and Gambel oak with pockets of sagebrush meadow. The canyons and gulches are densely wooded. Most of the smaller gulches have a mix of aspen, oak, ?'; s ruce, and fir with the conifers tendin to dominate in more enclosed or sheltered settin s Several i P g g ''"" solitary box elders were noted in these gulches. Box Canyon is more open than the smaller gulches ~„ ~, and contains a variety of trees and brush. Trees noted in Box Canyon that were sparse or absent in the gulches included box elder, mountain maple, and narrow leaf cottonwood. ':, CULTURE HISTORY AND PREVIOUS WORK ~J A files seazch was conducted through the Colorado Office of Archaeology and Historic Preservation ~ (OAHP), and the files of the Grand Valley Ranger District were also consulted. Previous cultural ~~ resource projects in the area have included several linear corridors along the North Fork Gunnison River valley and numerous small drill pad and access surveys for stratigraphic cores and degas vents ~?; in the project vicinity. Few sites have been documented in the legal sections containing the project ~~i area or in nearby legal sections. These have included two historic coal mines (the Oliver Mine, SGN254, and the Hawks Nest Mine, SGN1561), an historical grave marker (5GN1494), and a Y prehistoric isolated find (SGN1390). All of the latter resources are on the north side of the river =~' valley. None of the known cultural resources aze within the project area. Some of the underground workings of the Oliver Mine are in Section 15 east of Sylvester Gulch, but no aboveground features ~',~' were observed. E~' r The project area is in the western edge of the Colorado Mountains historic and the Gunnison River ~ Unit of the Northern Colorado River Basin prehistoric RP3 Contexts (Mehls 1984; Reed and Metcalf ` 1999). The reader is referred to those documents for discussions of the general culture history and reseazch issues of the region. ~~• ff~ STATEMENT OF OBJECTIVES L~~ Following state and federal policies and regulations implementing Section 106 of the National ~,,s. Historic Preservation Act (Public Law 89-665) as amended, this project area was inventoried to ~, ~r identify any cultural resources within the APE of the proposed project. Any discovered cultural resources were to be evaluated for eligibility to the Register under the Criteria for $ligibility (36 CFR ""'' §60.4 a-d). Register eligibility is evaluated is terms of the integrity of the resource, and: (a) its F <; '~_<=` association with significant events, or patterns in history or prehistory; (b) its association with the ~ MtnCoalWestElkPanels18to24Cult(210-50)rpt - 2 - ~ 10/30/2001 k