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h4 <br />Abstract <br />At the request of Oxbow Mining LLC, the Uncompahgre Field Office of the Bureau <br />of Land Management, and the USDA Forest Service (USFS), Grand River Institute (GRI) <br />conducted a Class III (intensive) cultural resource inventory of the block clearance area for <br />the Oxbow Mining LLC project in Delta and Gunnison Counties, Colorado. The project <br />area included approximately 12,600 acres from which about 3150 acres within 12 discrete <br />study units (private,1200 acres; BLM, 950 acres; and USDA Forest Service,1000 acres) were <br />intensively inventoried. These units were selected by GRI personnel to include virtually all <br />significant areas with less than 16 percent slope. Field work was conducted by Curtis Martin <br />(Project Archaeologist), Nicole Darnell, John Lindstrom, Jim Conner, and Dana Archuleta. <br />The study area lies immediately north of the town of Somerset, in Delta County, Colorado. <br />Report preparation was the responsibility of Darnell, Martin, Barbara Davenport and Cazl E. <br />Conner, Principal Investigator. <br />Field work was performed between the 8'" and 29"' of July 2005. This inventory was <br />limited to the survey of relatively level and open terrain because of the extremely heavy <br />vegetation cover and steep stopes of much of the project area. Open areas on the main ridge <br />tops and benches were inspected as well as the narrow valley floor of Hubbard Creek. Even <br />within these likely areas for cultural resources, the survey was often limited, in effect, to <br />areas where the ground was somewhat free of vegetation such as those provided by existing <br />roads, trails, and erosional azeas. <br />Files searches were conducted through the BLM and the Office of Archaeology and <br />Historic Preservation. Three historic sites (SGN254, SGN1494 and SGN1560), three <br />prehistoric sites (SDT1326, SGN4231 and SGN4232), and one site (SGN266) that had both <br />historic and prehistoric components were found to be previously recorded within the project <br />area Additionally, four prehistoric isolated finds (IFs) had been previously recorded <br />(SGN2626, SGN2627, SGN4233, and SGN4234). Of these previously recorded resources <br />only one, site 5GN1560, the town and cemetery of Somerset, had been evaluated as eligible <br />for inclusion on the National Register of Historic Places (NRHP). Sites SGN254, SGN266, <br />SGN4231, and SDT1326 were previously evaluated as need data, and all other sites and IFs <br />as not eligible. <br />Five of the previously recorded sites {SDT1326, SGN254, SGN1494, SGN1560 and <br />SGN4231) were relocated and reevaluated. The attempt to relocate SGN266, based upon the <br />original site descriptioq maps, and photographs, was unsuccessful. Site SGN4232 was not <br />revisited as it was not located within any of the discrete survey blocks delineated for survey <br />within the parameters of this project. The other revisits demonstrated overall that the sites <br />were little changed from as previously recorded and their previous NRHP evaluations have <br />been left unchanged with the exception of site SGN254, the Oliver Mine, which has been <br />reclaimed since its initial recordation and is now recommended as not eligible. <br />ii <br />