Laserfiche WebLink
-32- <br />Sites SMF406 and 407 are also on the colluvial ridges on the Iles <br />Mountain escarpment but are located in the vicinity of Morapos Creek 5 • <br />miles east of the sites described above. The lack of sites on the inter- <br />vening colluvial ridges along the escarpment is somewhat anomalous but <br />may be due to a lack of easily available water in the intervening area, <br />assuming that Stinking Gulch was an intermittent drainage during the <br />occupation. <br />4.5.3 The Axial Basin <br />Seven sites were located on low ridges between Jubb, Wilson, and Milk <br />Creeks near the head of Milk Creek Canyon whose cultural inventories mark <br />them off as distinct from the other prehistoric sites encountered during <br />the field investigation. These sites are SMF427, 428, 470, 471, 472, and <br />473. The artifacts and flakes collected from all seven sites were almost <br />entirely of white chert, a material that occurred only infrequently at the <br />other prehistoric sites. In addition, the flakes collected and observed <br />consisted almost entirely of small thinning flakes that result from the <br />final manufacturing stages of an artifact. It is suggested that the seven <br />sites represent occupations at the same general time level but there was <br />insufficient diagnostic material to determine when the occupations occurred. • <br />There was also insufficient information to determine the relationship <br />between these sites and other sites in the study area. <br />4.5.5 Milk Creek Canyon <br />A total of six sites were recorded in the south half of Milk Creek <br />Canyon. Two of the sites, SMF409 and 435, are rockshelters and SMF423, <br />424, 425, and 434 are open lithic sites. It is suggested that SMF409 and <br />SMF425 are contemporaneous, an assumption based on their close spatial <br />association. A similar inference is made for SMF435 and SMF434 but with <br />less confidence. The SMF435 rockshelter offers possibly the greatest <br />potential of any site recorded during the field investigation in terms of <br />increasing our understanding of the chronological relationships of the <br />different occupations of the study area. It contains at least two meters <br />of stratified deposits that may represent several millenia of occupation <br />and pictographs of mounted riders on the walls of the shelter (cf. site <br />form) indicate that Utes were the latest occupants of the shelter. <br />4.5.5 The Colowyo Mine site • <br />Despite the abundant faunal and floral food resources available on <br />