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i• <br />Introduction <br />At the request of Bowie Resources, Ltd. (as represented by J.E. Stover and <br />Associates), the Gunnison National Forest Paonia Ranger District (FS), and the Office of <br />Surface Mining, a Class III cultural resource inventory of approximately 1360 acres of Forest <br />Service administered lands within the Iron Point Coal Lease Tract (COC-61209) was <br />conducted by Cazl E. Conner and Bazbaza J. Davenport of Grand River Institute. <br />The survey was done to meet requirements of National Historic Preservation Act (as <br />amended in 1992), the National Envirortmental Policy Act (NEPA) of 1969, and Article 80.1 <br />ofthe Colorado Revised Statutes. These laws are 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 />Accordingly, the purposes of the inventory were to conduct an intensive <br />azchaeological survey of azeas potentially subject to direct impact from the proposed coal <br />nvning operations; to identify and accurately locate azchaeological sites and/or districts and <br />isolated finds; to evaluate these surface finds for inclusion on the National Register of Historic <br />Places (NRHP); to determine the potential effect of the Honing activities on all NRHP-eligible <br />resources; and to make recommendations for the mitigation of any adverse effects on those <br />cultural resources. <br />Location of the Project Area <br />The study area lies north of the town of Bowie, in Delta County, Colorado. The FS <br />portion of the Iron Point Coal Lease Tract, a block of approximately 1360 acres, is located in <br />T. 12 S., R. 91 W., Sections 33 and 34, 6th P.M. (Figure 1). <br />Environment <br />The study azea lies off the southeast comer of Grand Mesa, an 11,000-foot high, flat- <br />topped mountain capped by basalt flows of late Miocene and eazly Pliocene age ca. 10 million <br />yeazs old (Young and Young 1968). Cretaceous-age Mesaverde Formation sandstones and <br />coal-bearing rocks form the bedrock of the study azea. <br />The survey area lies in a rectangular block north of the town of Bowie that extends <br />from Hubbard Creek across a mountain ridge-spine to the east side of the East Fork of Terror <br />• Creek. Elevations in the study area range from 6400 feet in the Hubbard Creek drainage <br />bottom to 8400 feet on the ridge top. The area is nearly all covered in Transitional Zone <br />