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5 <br />performed by LOPA under the direction of Dr. Calvin H. Jennings in order <br />` to inventory the cultural resources of several proposed coal lease tracts, <br />and came within about 100 yd of our survey area (Arthur 1977). <br />_. Several of the sites recorded in the area were small lithic scatters <br />on terraces just west and southwest of the Williams Fork River. These <br />include 5h1F335, 430, and 432. Site 5t1F331, also on a terrace .above the <br />river, was an historic site. Sites.found in the Williams Fork t4ountains <br />near the survey area include 5t•1F475, a.small open lithic site, and 5t4F348, <br />• an historic site. <br />We can therefore conclude that, although the area has apparently been <br />occupied for some time and seems to be fairly significant archaeologically, <br />little can be said about it without further, more detailed study. <br />EIIVIRONt1ENT <br />• '. The Williams Fork Plountains, in arhich the proposed development is loca- <br />ted, are part of the Williams Fork formation of Late Cretaceous age, and are <br />composed of beds of sandstone, sandy shale and coal (f3LFt 1976:II-4). This <br />range, which runs roughly east and west, generally drops off steeply to the <br />south, while sloping more gently towards the Yampa River in the north (Arthur <br />197J:4). <br />At present, the Criag area is quite dry, averaging between 12 and 16 in <br />of precipitation annually. The area has a growing season of approximately <br />94 da ([ferry 1968:5, 10). Although little is known about paleoclimatic con- <br />ditions, the climate of the Soutli~•resi leas not changed greatly since the end <br />of the Pleistocene, about 6000 [l. C. (Weber and others 1977:15). <br />• , <br />. __. <br />