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LORENCITO CANYON MINE CONTOUR CUTS <br />CULTURAL RESOURCES INVENTORY <br />INTRODUCTION <br />Lorencito Coal Company LLC (Lorencito) contracted with Greystone Environmental <br />Consultants (Greystone) to conduct an intensive cultural resource inventory for an amended mine <br />permit application. Areas requiring cultural resource inventory consisted of areas of proposed <br />contour cuts on the east and west sides of Lorencito Canyon north of Little Pine Canyon, the <br />lower portion of Jeff Canyon, the lower portion of Little Jeff Canyon and a small area along the <br />south side of the Picketwire Valley west of Lorencito Canyon (Figure 1). These areas are east of <br />and overlapping with cultural resource inventories conducted in 1996 for a mine permit <br />application (McKibbin et al 1997). The majority of the contour cut areas identified f'or inventory <br />are along moderately steep (30-40%) slopes overlooking the canyons. Fill and pond areas are <br />located on slopes and terraces below the contour cuts. At one extreme, some of the north-facing <br />slopes along the Picketwire Valley approach 70% slope, and at the other extreme, there is a large <br />area of level to gently sloping bench north of Jeff Canyon. <br />The mine surface and minerals are privately owned. However, because [he Colorado Division of <br />Minerals and Geology, Mined Land Reclamation Board has regulatory jurisdiction over the <br />extraction of coal deposits under the auspices of the USDA Office of Surface Mining, permits <br />• are subject to the regulatory requirements of a Memorandum of Understanding between the <br />Mined Land Reclamation Board and the Colorado Office of Archaeology and Historic <br />Preservation. The pedestrian inventory was conducted by Cherie K. Walth and Michael Landham <br />of Greystone on March 21-23, 2001, and by Carl Spath, PhD, and Cherie K. Walth on April 17- <br />18, 2001, under State of Colorado Archaeological Permit #2001-35. Carl Spath, PhD, served as <br />Principal Investigator for the project. <br />AFFECTED ENVIRONMENT <br />The project azea is located in the lower portion of Lorencito Canyon on the south side of the <br />Picketwire Valley, about fifteen miles west of Trinidad, Colorado. The Picketwire Valley is the <br />northern boundary of the project area, and the project extends southerly along Lorencito Canyon <br />to an area between Puertecito and Little Pine Can}~ons. The project area also extends a short way <br />up the lower portions of Jeff Canyon and Little Jeff Canyon. This area is in the Park Plateau, an <br />area of canyons entrenched in the strata of the Raton Formation. The resulting topography is <br />dominated by narrow, steep-sided canyons bounded by flat-topped benches and ridges. <br />Elevations in the project azea range from about 6,590 feet above sea level at the confluence of <br />Lorencito Creek and the Purgatoire River, to 6880 feet at the south end of the project. <br />Lorencito Canyon is a north flowing tributary of the Purgatoire River, flowing from the divide <br />between the Purgatoire River and Canadian River drainage basins near the Colorado-New <br />Mexico state line. The headwaters of the Purgatoire River are west of the project area in the <br />• Sangre de Cristo Range. Local topography is controlled by resistant Upper Cretaceous to <br />Paleocene arkosic sandstone, siltstone, and shale of the Raton Formation, and Middle Tertiary <br />CunrnuK,'uuCLlRr~-RPT(J-f)RrrlUprd Y, 7001 1 <br />