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Revised October 16, 1981 main economic basis of the area at the turn of the century was ranching and farming. Underground coal mining activities have been carried out in the permit and adjacent areas for many years. Attached to this Section are the listing of mines which have previously operated in the permit and adjacent area. Approximately 400 coal mines have been active in the Walsenburg and Trinidad area since mining began in the 1880's. Other than past mining activities, the mine plan area has had no significant historical events taken place on it. Only remnants remain in the permit area of what was once a viable coal mining industry. The Denver and Rio Grande Western spur into Aguilar has long been abandoned. Abandoned waste dumps and deteriorating structures of old coal mines can still be seen in the area. • The permit area was not the location of any events of of importance to the course of local, state, or national history. None of the old mining sites have been associated with people important in local, state, or national history. None of the surviving physical remains of the coal mines have any characteristics that make them either more representative or more distinctive than any of the other abandoned sites in the surrounding county that are near the proposed mining activities. In addition, there is nothing historic about the mine plan area. Sites of past coal mining arc merely old. The removal of old mining associated sites will not constitute an impact on the significant historical resrources of the region. Rather, the proposed mining reclamation operations of the Viking Coal Company will be extremely beneficial in eliminating subsidence, some old waste dumps, and deterioriating structures where they are in the path of the planned mining. Following the reclamation of the planned operation, the area • will again be useful as rangeland. r. ~.. _ ;~