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Introduction <br />At the request of the Somerset Mining Company and <br />Colorado Mine Land Reclamation, a Class III cultural resource <br />inventory of 100 acres within the Sanborn Creek Mine impact <br />area was conducted by Carl E. Conner of Grand River Institute. <br />This work was done to meet requirements of Article 80.1, <br />Colorado Revised Statutes. This law is concerned with the <br />identification, evaluation, and protection of fragile, non- <br />renewable evidences of human activity, occupation and endeavor <br />reflected in districts, sites, structures, artifacts, objects, <br />ruins, works of art, architecture, and natural features that <br />were of importance in human events. Such resources tend to be <br />localized and highly sensitive to disturbance. <br />Accordingly, the purposes of the intensive inventory were <br />to conduct a Class III archaeological survey of 100 acres <br />potentially subject to direct impact from road, mine and <br />storage areas; to identify and accurately locate <br />archaeological sites and/or districts and isolated finds; to <br />evaluate these surface finds for inclusion on the National <br />Register of Historic Places (NRHP); to determine the potential <br />effect of the mining activities on all NRHP-eligible <br />resources; and to make recommendations for the mitigation of <br />• the adverse effects on those cultural resources. <br />Field work was performed during the third week of November <br />1991. No cultural resources were identified. <br />Location of the Project Area <br />The study area is in the west-central portion of Colorado <br />just north of the town of Somerset. It is located in T. 13 <br />S., R. 90 W., Section 8, 6th P.M. (Figure 1). <br />Affected Environment <br />The project area lies within the Piceance Basin, a major <br />geologic subdivision of western Colorado. The basin is an <br />elongate structural downwarp of the Colorado Plateau province <br />that apparently began its subsidence approximately 70 million <br />years ago during the laramide progeny. Sediments from <br />surrounding highlands were deposited in the basin, <br />accumulating to a thickness of as much as 9000 feet by the <br />lower Eocene epoch, when subsidence ceased. Regional uplift <br />occurred in Late Tertiary time, and erosion of the area has <br />continued since (Young and Young 1977). The study area lies <br />off the southeast corner of Grand Mesa, an 11,000-foot high, <br />• 1 <br />