PERMFILE53376

• Permit No: C1981019
• IBM Index Class Name: Permit File
• Doc Date: 12/11/2001
• Doc Name: Sections 4 cont & Section 5
• Section_Exhibit Name: EXHIBIT 05 Archaelogical Part 3
• Media Type: D
• Archive: No

proposed project area was the upgrade of the existing Craig to Rifle
transmission line (Treat and Newkirk 1981). N'o cultural resources were
recorded ~•~ithin the project area.
Several small scale projects have also been conducted within the
proposed mine area and include a Bureau of Land Management (BLM) survey
in 1979 (Walton 1979) of approximately 50 acres (NW; of IJE~ Section 21,
Too-;nship 3 North, Range 93 West) and drill pads and access roads for oil
and gas explorations conducted by Centuries Research, Inc. (Babcock
1982) and Grand River Institute (Hartley 1983) from 1980 to 1983. All
of these small scale projects discovered no cultural resources .and the
work was minimally reported as negative resource reports.
Of interest in the general area contiguous to the proposed nine
area and rail spurs are three large-scale cultural resource projects
located west of the proposed Rail Spur #1. The first of these is a
BLI.1 Class II (sample inventory) whose results are distinguished by
the discovery of the Somemore site (5MF969), a possible bison kill
(Piontkowski 1981). According to Piontkowski (Personal Communication,
5 October 1984), bones eroding out of a stream cutbank were recovered
and sent to Dr. Joe Ben Wheat, University of Colorado Museum (Boulder),
for identification. He identified them as bones of an extinct bison
species on which were discovered cut-marks. The site has been revisited
several times and core augered but no additional materials other than a
vertebral fragment have been recovered. The site is considered to be
significant and it is hoped that further work will be conducted at the
• locality. Since the site is on private land, however, it remains ques-
tionable whether or not this work will take place. Two other projects
are intensive Class III inventories conducted for Utah International,
Inc. (Kranzush 1982; Kainer 1983) covering 3,535 acres of a proposed
coal mine area. Cultural resources found by these three projects are
primarily open lithic scatters, isolated finds or historic remains.
In spite of the comparatively large amount of work that has been
conducted thus far within the proposed mine area and rail spurs, very
few cultural resources have actually been recorded. Two isolated finds
are the only previously recorded cultural resources within the proposed
coal mine area. There is one previously recorded open lithic scatter/
habitation site located on the proposed Rail Spur #1 and several on the
proposed Rail Spur #2. The cultural resources near or on the proposed
Rail Spur #2 will be detailed later in this report in Section 4.0, as
this spur is currently being considered as an alternative to Rail Spur
#1 and only Class I information was gathered for it.
2.3 Culture History
2.3.1 General
Northwestern Colorado has been inhabited by various cultural
groups for at least 10,000 years. Some groups left substantial evidence
of their occupation; others, very little. The oldest sites (e.g.,
• Paleoindian) are few and sparse, generally consisting of surface finds
of lanceolate projectile points. Undoubtedly, many of these early sites
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