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Methodology of the Present Study • This project was carried out via an exhaustive review of the available cultural resource literature pertinent to the project area. Contacts were made with the Office of the State Archaeologist of Colorado and the Office of Historic Preservation, both of the State Historical Society of Colorado. They provided updated information on cultural resources located in the project area as well as nominated or pending nominations to the National Register of Historic Places. Local Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management cultural resource management personnel were also contacted since these agencies are responsible for public lands in the project vicinity. In addition to published archaeological studies, pertinent unpublished reports were reviewed. These especially included the various manuscript reports completed by Centuries for Colorado Westmoreland on various aspects of the study area. This particularly included small projects completed since the first baseline cultural resource studies were completed in 1977. In short, this project updates and summarizes all information regarding cultural resources in the vicinity of the Orchard Valley Mine and provides a series of comments and recommendations relating to needs in this subject area. Cursory Discussion of the Natural Environment of the Project Area Overall, the study area constitutes a transect of the local environment • and includes resources representing the major historical/cultural patterns which have been active in the North Fork Valley from prehistoric times until the present day. This transect begins in the floor of the North Fork Valley of the Gunnison, traverses the foothills and extends welt into the mountains to the north of the valley. The North fork of the Gunnison River is situated at an elevation of about 5,b00 ft. near the center of a valley which measures roughly one-half mile wide in the study area. Paleo-environmental data are not seemingly available for the valley floor, but indications are that the local floral community was composed of lush native grasses interspersed with Box Elder and what is locally referred to as "Valley Oak" at the time of White settlement in the 1880's. One may reasonably suspect that Cottonwood and willows were also present in the local area as well. The climate was presumably typical of the mountain valleys in the Gunnison Country where winters are harsh and the summer growing season is short in comparison to valleys at lower elevations. The faunal community would have been typical of the Rocky Mountains with deer, elk, bear, beaver, wolf, and other mammals being conspicious. The foothiti slopes of the mountains rise steeply and reach an elevation of about 8,000 feet within about two and one-half miles of the Valley floor. Pinion and Juniper with a mixture of shrub oak and other flora typical of the Transitional Life Zone are evident on the slopes. Again, fauna typical of the Rocky Mountain Region would have been • present at the time of initial White settlement in the region. 3