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The first settlers in the North Fork Valley were stockmen, <br />• and by the middle 1880s more and more individuals were pre- <br />empting land and running cattle in the Paonia area. Cattle <br />remained the mainstay of the local economy, and the basic <br />cultural character of the region was cast in ranching until <br />fruit production eclipsed the industry in economic importance <br />about the turn of the century.,,, The period of primary <br />settlement generally related to the first pioneering efforts <br />in the North Fork. The valley floor seems to have been <br />pretty well taken up by the early 1890s, and by the turn <br />of the century the extensive form of exploitation which <br />characterized the cattle ranching was being replaced by the <br />intensive agricultural efforts attending growth of the <br />fruit industry. <br />PREVIOUS INVESTIGATIONS AND KNOWN SITES <br />To date the only other archaeological work that has been performed in <br />the immediate area relates to Colorado Westmoreland's operation (Baker ]984 <br />and Hibbets et al 1979). <br />• A summary of these projects is given in Table 1 and discussed at <br />length in Baker (1984). None of the previous projects covered the present <br />study area with any intensity, even though a narrow corridor was surveyed <br />through it in 1976 (Baker 1977). Previous work had shown, however, that <br />prehistoric sites would be quite rare and that most resources would be <br />historic EuroAmerican related to cattle ranching and fruit orchard <br />operations (Baker 1984). A site file search was completed with the office <br />of the State Archaeologist in May 1984 and indicated that no <br />resources had been recorded in the project area. <br />r~ <br />7 <br />