PERMFILE110598

• Permit No: C1981022
• IBM Index Class Name: Permit File
• Doc Date: 12/11/2001
• Doc Name: Cultural Resource Report Sanborn Crk Mine Portals Centuries Research Inc 1/91
• Section_Exhibit Name: Exhibit 2.04-E2 Part 6
• Media Type: D
• Archive: No

Introduction
J. E. Stover and associates of Grand Junction, Colorado has applied
for a permit from the Colorado Mined Land Reclamation Division for new
coal mine portals and surface facilities for Somerset Mining Company of
Somerset, Colorado. These developments will be known as the Sanborn
Creek Mine. They will be located in the valley of the North Fork of the
Gunnison River near the historic mining town of Somerset in Gunnison
County, Colorado. The portals will be located on private lands adjacent
to the town of Somerset. A permit application must be submitted to the
Colorado Mined Land Reclamation Division. Such applications routinely
require a cultural resource inventory of the involved lands in keeping
with the National Historic Preservation Act of 1966 (36 CFR 800) and
other pertinent regulations. In keeping with ttris requirement, Stover
and Associates retained Centuries Research to perform a Class III or 100
percent cultural resource inventory of the 15 acre ~ project area and to
prepare a report for the Colorado Mined Lands Reclamation Division to
the standards of the SHPO of Colorado, Colorado Historical Society. In
this regard, since it is smaller than 50 acres, this report has been
prepared according to the SHPO's Report Guidelines for Archaeological
Survey of Small-Scale Projects (Colorado Historical Society 1986).
In keeping with this purpose, the project area was subjected to a
Class III pedestrian inventory on Dec. 4, 1990. The inventory was
completed under the direction of this author with field assistance from
archaeological technician Monte Sanburg of Centuries Research.
• '' The lands involved in the project are privately owned and no
cultural resource permit was required for the performance of this
inventory.
Project Area Location and Description
The general Project Area (Figure 1) is situated at about 6,100 ft.
on the southeast flank of Grand Mesa in the tightly constrained upper
valley of the North Fork of the Gunnison River (Figures 1, 2 and 3) in
west-central Colorado. It is located adjacent to the town of Somerset
and is some 37 miles east of Delta, Colorado (Figure 1). This is about
77 highway miles southeast of Grand Junction and 59 highway miles
northeast of Montrose, Colorado.
Grand Mesa is a prominent lava-capped plateau attaining altitudes
as high as 11,000 feet. It is located on the extreme east edge of the
Great Basin in the Colorado Plateau Province near its contact with the
Southern Rocky Mountain Province (Thornbury 1967:414-415, 334). The
area is also situated on the extreme east margin of the Great Basin
Floristic Province (U'Azevedo 19E6:6-7). The North Fork of the Gunnison
River is situated at an elevation of about 6,000 feet in a narrow valley
which measures less than one-quarter mile wide near the study area. The
study area itself includes topography ranging in elevation from 6,100 to
6,300 feet.

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