PERMFILE54142

• Permit No: C1981008A
• IBM Index Class Name: Permit File
• Doc Date: 12/11/2001
• Section_Exhibit Name: NH1 Tab 5 Addendum 5-1 Cultural Resources Investigations Mining Areas 2, 2 & Nucla East
• Media Type: D
• Archive: Yes

INTRODUCTION
As part of its ongoing coal mining operations at the Nucla Mine, located
in the western part of Montrose County, Colorado, Peabody Coal Company
contracted with Nickens and Associates to provide field inspections of
two future mining areas, designated as Tracts IIA and III, and six drill
site areas to ascertain whether or not significant historic or
prehistoric cultural resource properties may be adversely affected by
proposed mining activities. As shown in Figure 1, the survey areas
occur west and northwest of the town of Nucla, and are adjacent to a
tract (No. II) previously surveyed by Nickens and Associates (Tucker
1986).
Tract IIA is an irregularly shaped area of 112 acres, located primarily
in the SE} of Section 6, T.46N, R.15W. It is situated immediately west
of Nucla and includes almost entirely disturbed land, mostly of an
agricultural nature. Tract III, a rectangular area, lies northwest of
the town and just south of the present mining area in the SW; of Section
31, T.47N, R.15W and the SE; of Section 36, T.47N, R.16W. This tract is
also primarily agricultural acreage; however, some smaller parcels of
undisturbed land occur. The six drill sites are randomly distributed to
the west of Tracts II and IIA. All of the survey areas lie on private
property.
As noted, these project areas are designated as probable future mining
. areas. The drill site locations are exploratory in nature and will be
drilled in 1988. Overland access routes to these six locations will be
less than 50 feet in width and less than one acre will be needed for the
actual drill pad site. Projected mining areas are shown on Exhibit
12-3, Operations Plan - Nucla East.
Reconnaissance level and intensive field surveys were conducted
intermittently, depending upon weather conditions, by the author between
March 7 and 25, 1988. No artifactual materials were collected and
resulting field notes and photographic files are located at Nickens and
Associates' office in Montrose.
At the request of Peabody Loal Company, separate cultural resource
reports are being submitted for each of the two survey tracts and for
the six drill sites. Since this work represents a continuation of
previous cultural resource efforts on this project, the reporting of the
field results will be presented as attachments to the previous project
report in which Tucker (1986) thoroughly outlined the effective
environment of the study area, outlined the work objectives, and
described the survey methodology. As a consequence, this information is
not repeated in the attached reports. Any changes to the previously
stated methodology, survey area descriptions, and survey results are of
course detailed in the current reporting. The earlier site file search
of the Colorado Inventory of Cultural Resources was updated by a request
to the Colorado Office of Archaeology and Historic Preservation in March
1988. No known cultural resource sites are located in the survey areas.
57