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• ABSTRACT <br />On May 23-24 and June 9, 2001 Westera Cultural Resource Management, Inc. (WCRM) <br />conducted a Class III cultural resource survey of approximately 1330 acres in Delta and <br />Gunnison Counties,•Colorado for the Oxbow Mining, Inc Ells Creek Lease Exploration Project. <br />The Project Area is located northwest of Somerset, Colorado. The inventory was limited to the <br />survey of open terrain provided by existing roads, trails, and erosional areas because of the heavy <br />vegetation cover and steep slopes present. As a result, approximately 60 acres of the 1330 acres <br />were accessible for survey. . <br />The Class III survey was conducted in order to identify and document cultural resources with <br />regard to the National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) and to formulate recommendations for <br />the mitigation of adverse effects to significant resources. The lead agency for the project was the <br />Bureau of Land Management (BLM), Uncompahgre Basin Resource Area. Six drill pads as well <br />as existing roads and new roads to be built fall on BLM lands. Portions of six drill pads and two <br />existing roads also are within the Gunnison National Forest (NF). The Colorado Division of <br />Mines and Geology (CDMG), a state agency, also played a part in requiring the completion of a <br />pedestrian survey. <br />The Project Area will be directly and indirectly affected by construction of approximately 18,000 <br />. feet of new roads and 16 drill pads: In addition, a buffer of 200 feet on either side of existing <br />roads may possibly be impacted by increased truck traffic to the proposed drill sites. The section <br />of existing road stretching from the center of drill location OM-O1-06 to the center of drill <br />location OM-Ol-11 is located on BLM, NF and private lands. The right-of--way for this section <br />will remain on the current 20 foot widetwo-track to single-track road. A portion (approximately <br />1500 feet) of the northernmost section of existing road will remain within a 30 foot right-of--way <br />due to the presence of several structures including a house and hunter's cabins. This portion of <br />the road is between drill location OM-01-04 and drill location OM-Ol-O1 and begins at its <br />intersection with the dirt road that runs along Bear Creek (from south to north) and continues <br />west until it turns south and meets the Delta and Gunnison County lines. <br />No previously recorded sites had been documented within the Project Area. Segments of two <br />previously recorded historic linear features, the Denver and' Rio Grand Western (D&RGW) <br />Railroad (SGN1661.2) and the Fire Mountain Canal (SGN3711.1), were recorded. It is <br />recommended that if these resources will be impacted, they should be recorded and photographed <br />according to BLM Level II standards. One historic structure that had burned down in the 1960s <br />is located east of Drill Pad Ol-Ol . This site will be avoided and will not be impacted by drill pad <br />construction. Only the western portion of the pad (west of the existing road) will be impacted. <br />U <br />ii <br />