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Introduction <br />At the request of Bowie Resources, Ltd. (as represented by J.E. Stover and <br />Associates), the Bureau of Land Management, and the Office of Surface Mining, a Ctass III <br />cultural resource inventory of approximately 1640 acres of BLM administered lands within <br />the Iron Point Coal Lease Tract (COC-61209) was conducted by Cazl E. Conner and Bazbara <br />J. Davenport of Grand River Institute. <br />The survey was done to meet requirements ofNational Historic Preservation Act (as <br />amended in 1992), the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) of 1969, and Article 80.1 <br />of the Colorado Revised Statutes. These laws aze concerned with the identification, <br />evaluation, and protection of fragile, non-renewable evidences of human activity, occupation <br />and endeavor reflected in districts, sites, structures, artifacts, objects, ruins, works of art, <br />architecture, and natural features that were of importance in human events. Such resources <br />tend to be localized and highly sensitive to disturbance. <br />n <br />LJ <br />Accordingly, the purposes of the inventory were to conduct an intensive <br />archaeological survey of areas potentially subject to direct impact from the proposed coal <br />mining operations; to identify and accurately locate azchaeological sites and/or districts and <br />isolated fords; to evaluate these surface finds for inclusion on the National Register of <br />Historic Places (NRHP); to determine the potential effect of the minirtg activities on all • <br />NRHP-eligible resources; and to make recommendations for the mitigation of any adverse <br />effects on those cultural resources. <br />Location of the Project Area <br />The study area lies north of the town of Bowie, in Delta County, Colorado. The <br />BLM portion of the Iron Point Coal Lease Tract, an irregular block of approximately 1640 <br />acres, is located in T. 13 S., R. 91 W., Sections 2, 3, 4, 5, 8, 9, and 11, 6th P.M. (Figure 1). <br />En viron men t <br />The study area lies offthe southeast corner of Grand Mesa, an 11,000-foot high, flat- <br />topped mountain capped by basalt flows of late Miocene and early Pliocene age ca. 10 million <br />years old (Young and Young 1968). Cretaceous-age Mesaverde Formation sandstones and <br />coal-bearing rocks form the bedrock ofthe study area. <br />The survey area Ges in an east-west band north of the town of Bowie that extends <br />from Hubbard Creek across a mountain ridge-spine to Terror Creek. Elevations in the study <br />area range from 6280 feet in the Hubbard Creek drainage bottom to 8040 feet on the ridge <br />top. The area is nearly all covered in Transitional Zone brush including oakbrush, • <br />