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Maurtmirt Coa( Compam~ Care Hofe SST-/ Gdneral Resource /nven[on~ Reparr CULTURE HISTORY AND PREVIOUS WORK A files search was conducted through Colorado Office of Archaeology and Historic Preservation (OAHP). The files search indicated that a single previous investigation has been conducted in the vicinity for core holes in Mountain Coal Company's Sunset Trail Exploration Area (Spath 1998). No cultural resources were reported. The survey area is within the regions addressed by the Northern Colorado River Basin prehistoric context (Reed and Metcalf 1999) and the Colorado Mountains historic context (Husband 1984). Known historic and prehistoric resources are generally associated with the river valleys. Historic development in [he area began afrer the Ute removal in the early 1880s, but increased greatly with the arrival of the railroad in the early 1900s. Historically, the most important economic activities have been agriculture, especially fruit orchards; ranching; and coal mining. STATEMENT OF OBJECTIVES Following state policies and regulations implementing CRS 1973 24-80-401 et seq., this project area was inventoried to identify any cultural resources within the area of potential effects (APE) ofthe proposed project. Any discovered cultural resources were to be evaluated for eligibility to the Colorado State Register ofHistoric Properties (Register) under the Nomination Criteria (OAHP 2000). Register eligibility is evaluated in terms of the integrity of the resource, and: (a) its association with significant events, patterns in history, or prehistory; (b) its association with the specific contributions of individuals significant in our past; (c) its engineering, artistic, or architectural values; (d) its geographic importance; or (e) its information potential for important reseazch questions in history or prehistory. Prehistoric resources are most ofren evaluated under Criterion e for their potential to yield information important in prehistory. Significant information potential in a prehistoric site requires that the site contain intact cultural deposits or discrete activity azeas that can be securely associated with a temporal period or discrete cultural group. The potential for intact deposits or culturnUtempornl associations maybe inferred from surface evidence of cultural features or undisturbed Holocene deposits, and the presence of temporally or culturally diagnostic artifacts. Historic resources may be evaluated under any of the Criteria. However, in the absence of structural features or documented association with significant historic events or the important contributions of significant persons in history, historical resources more than 50 yeazs old are evaluated under essentially the same criteria as prehistoric resources. Based on information available from files searches and previous research experience in the area, Greystone anticipated that prehistoric and historic cultural resources would be scarce in this project area. METHODS The cultural resource inventory of the proposed core hole included an irregulaz block azea of about 5.2 acres around the staked core hole location and approximately 4,900 feet of access. The block area was surveyed by pedestrian transects at roughly 20- to 30-meter intervals. The meadow was thoroughly inspected where the pad area was marked. The azeas of aspens and heavy brush around the meadow were surveyed less systematically because of the dense brush and deadfall. The access follows existing ATV trails that will need to be temporarily upgraded for access to the core hole location. A corridor approximately 200 feet wide was surveyed by zig-zag transects across the existing trails. Trees and brush were too dense to either side of the existing trails along most of the corridor to survey transects parallel to the trails. C~ 210-Sunset Treil Core Hole Rpt_(8. ] 1.04)