PERMFILE131119 - Laserfiche WebLink

Home Browse Search

y • 5 DT127 is a lithic scatter at the function oT Love Creek and the Fire Mountain Canal, west oS the areas investigated in the upper North Fork Valley. One projectile point recovered from the surface sugEests a late prehistoric occupation. Thorough excavation is also proposed for this site. The prehistoric components of sites located by Raker (5 DT88 and 5 DT90) lack diagnostic material and taus cannot be associated with any cultural tradi- tion. A small stemmed projectile point was located as an isolated £ind (Baker 1977= 14)r but no hypothesis as to broad temporal association can be made due to lack of data. While workir~ on the CDH project, this investigator received numerous re- ports of a Ute Indian village located west of Paonia and believed to date to c. 1879• This site was not relocated by this, the CDH, or the Westmoreland Coal study. The CDH personnel also heard reports of Indian graves with wooden head- stones in the Hotchkiss cemetary, but were unable to validate the information. No recorded prehistoric sites will be impacted by proposed activities. Historic Haclceround European contact in the area was first made when the Dcminguez Escalante Expedition travelled up Hubbazd Creek located west of the areas investigated. How- ever, the area was not officially opened to settlers until Ute removal in 2882, and the original Euroamerican exploitation of the area zaas by stockmen (Baker 1977 17}. The development of the lower end of the valley (south of Bowie} is discussed in de- tail in Baker (1977 The history of cattle and sheep raising and trait cultiva- tion will not be discussed here, except to state that the settlement of areas west of the Western Slope Carbon pro3ect areas was probably the mayor cause for historic activity recorded east of Sommerset. Late nineteenth century Euroamerican presence in the area is attested to by several "graves" on the north side of the Gunnison P.iver. The graves of a fudge and two children located in T135, 3i89W, Section 7 are .elieved to date to the late nineteenth or early twentieth century. The graves, fairly well hidden by dense vegetation, consist of rock mounds with no markers. The children were purportedly mambers of a family who homesteaded the area in the late 1880's (Hob Harv.;r, personal co:mmunication). An additional marker, located ad,Jacent to the highway '3S, R90W, • Section 10 bears the inscription of a Deputy Surveyor and the dato 1885. It is claimed by some to be a grave stone (and is so mark c. ;,he euad-