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2 these areas and associated access corridors (fJ,`-Alternates= L`,- S;~T; U;";arid Vj were in open scrub oak and brush with a sparse grassy understory: At L the scrub oak was mixed with pine and sage. Surface visibility was excellent in all of the latter locations. l.' Drill locatiun Q was located on the toeslope of a slide area, heavily disturbed by highway construction. M-Alternate was in a wet meadow setting with moderately good surface visibility (60-80%). Drill location Nand access were in denser oak chaparral with some nearby aspen stands. Thickets and high underbrush were difficult to get„through in places, but surface visibility was good (40-80%). Drill location Wand access also had some dense thickets and tangled underbrush, but ground surface visibility was generally good. Location~R and access were in a gulch. Near the existing road vegetation was high, moderately dense willow in sandy alluvium. About one-sixth mile to the east vegetation graded to mixed conifer, aspen, willow trees and ash with high, but generally open brushy understory, and occasional open wet meadows. Surface visibility was highly variable, from good to poor, but all areas exhibited indications of high-energy runoff. The latter indications included: poorly sorted, coarse, gravelly soils; twigs, grass, and other flood debris high on the upstream sides of the underbrush; and gully cuts exhibiting high- energy runoff deposits. Surface visibility was not entirely satisfactory, but the setting appeared to have a very low potential for in situ cultural materials. Files Search and Literature Review Prior to field work, a files search was conducted through the Colorado Office of Archaeology and Historic Preservation (OAHP). The files search indicated that 16 previous cultural resource investigations were on file for the legal sections contain the proposed project area. These investigations included a highway improvement survey, an oakbrush burn survey, a wellpad survey, a Class II exploration and development survey, two range improvement surveys, two surveys for ponds and trails, three mine improvement surveys, and five surveys for exploratory drilling similar to the present survey. These sixteen previous investigations reported only two cultural resources, the Auden coal mine (5GN1561), and a prehistoric isolated find (5GN1134) not far from a natural spring. Despite the seasonal abundance of favorable resources in this area, cultural resource inventories have generally been negative. The project area is located in an area of transition or overlap between the West-Central Colorado Prehistoric Context (Reed 1984) and the Colorado Mountains Prehistoric Context (Guthrie, et al. 1984). Neither area has yielded evidence of frequent prehistoric use of the scrub oak chaparral during any of the prehistoric periods, and our understanding of prehistoric patterns of utilization of the mountains remains largely elusive. The earliest documented historic visit to the general area was the Domingu2z-Escalante expedition of 1776 which passed along the North Fork of the Gunnison (Chavez and Warner 1976:29). The area was within the range of Euroamerican trapping activities in the early 1800s and was later influenced by ranching, farming, and the expansion of coal mining (Mehls 1982). Historic activities that would leave more than limited, transitory traces have tended to center along the river valleys.