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n <br />\J <br />Historic records suggest occupation or use by EuroAmerican trappers, settlers, <br />miners, and ranchers as well. Removal of the Utes in 1881 freed the valley of the North Fork <br />of the Gunnison for agricultural development, rairoad canstruction and permanent <br />settlement. By the tnid-1880's this alluvial valley had been found suitable for fruit growing. <br />Sam Wade first brought experimental fruit trees from Missouri in 1882 and planted them in <br />what is now Paonia. Enos Hotchkiss followed suit, and the fruit industry in the North Fork <br />Valley took off, which influenced development throughout Delta and Montrose Counties. <br />Valley hay production combined with summer range in the surrounding mountains aided the <br />establishment of a prosperous livestock industry until a severe winter kill in 1893 reduced <br />many of the herds. The construction of an extension of the D&RG Railroad into the North <br />Fork Valley by 1902 (as faz as Paonia) aided fruit growers and cattlemen. Additional track <br />laid into Somerset in subsequent years (by 1906) initiated the coal mining boom. Overviews <br />of the history of the region are provided in the Colorado Historical Society's publication <br />entitled Colorado Plateau Country Historic Context (Husband 1984) and in the Bureau of <br />Land Management's pubhcation Frontier in Transition (O'Rourke 1980). <br />Study Objectives /Research Design <br />• The purposes of the inventory were to conduct an intensive archaeological survey of <br />areas potentially subject to direct impact from the mine loadout area; to intuitively sample <br />areas that may suffer secondary impacts; to identify and accwately locate archaeological sites <br />and/or districts and isolated finds; to evaluate these swface finds for inclusion on the National <br />Register of Historic Places (NRHP); to determine the potential effect of the mining activities <br />on all NRHP-eligible resources; and to make recommendations for the mitigation of the <br />adverse effects on those cultural resources. The presence of prehistoric resowces was <br />considered unlikely due to the high level of distwbance by historic EuroAmerican farming <br />on the narrow valley floor. Historic resources were known to occw from previous <br />observations in area. <br />Field Methods <br />A ] 00 percent, intensive, pedestrian Class III cultural resource survey was conducted <br />for those areas that will be directly affected by the mining operations. This includes a 70-acre <br />block that will be affected by the construction of a conveyor and a coal storage are related to <br />the railroad loadout area. It also includes an approximately 4200-foot-long corridor along <br />the existing railroad, west ofthe block survey area. A 200-foot wide transect was inspected <br />on the north side of the existing tracks. These areas were inspected by atwo-person crew <br />who walked transects spaced at I S-to-25 meters within the block area and the linear corridor. <br />A total of about 90 acres was intensively surveyed for cultural resources. In all cases, the <br />• heavy vegetation was a limitation to the survey. Also, the bench was heavily disturbed by the <br />mirting, railroading, and farming activities. <br />3 <br />