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.~ <br />Introduction <br />At the request of Powderhorn Coal Company and the Grand <br />Junction District Office of the Bureau of Land Management <br />(BLM), a cultural resource inventory of a proposed 1.6-mile- <br />long powerline and a new portal area for the Roadside Mine in <br />Mesa County, Colorado, was conducted by Carl E. Conner and <br />Rebecca L. Hutchins of Grand River Institute under BLM <br />Antiquities Permit No. C-52775. This work was done to meet <br />requirements of Executive Order 11593, the National <br />Environmental Policy Act of 1969, and other Federal Laws and <br />regulations that protect cultural resources. A prefieid <br />check-in/files search made through the BLM Grand Junction Area <br />Office on 20 April 1992 showed no cultural resources were <br />previously recorded in the study area. Field work was <br />performed on the 20th of April, and a total of 48 acres were <br />inspected (27 acres BLM, 21 acres private). One historic mine <br />site (5ME6868), a small, prehistoric open campsite (5ME6869), <br />and two isolated finds (5ME6870 and SME6871) were recorded. <br />.~ Location of Project Area <br />The study area is approximately 2.0 miles east of the <br />town of Palisade. The proposed powerline and mine portal area <br />are located in T. 115., R. 98W., Sections 2 and 11, 6th P.M. <br />(Figure 1}. <br />Affected Environment <br />The project area lies within the Piceance Basin, a major <br />geologic subdivision of western Colorado. The basin is an <br />elongate structural downwarp of the Colorado Plateau province <br />that apparently began its subsidence approximately 70 million <br />years ago during the Laramide orogeny. Sediments from <br />surrounding highlands were deposited in the basin, <br />accumulating to a thickness of as much as 9000 feet by the <br />lower Eocene epoch, when subsidence ceased. Regional uplift <br />occurred in the Late Tertiary, and erosion of the area has <br />continued since (Young and Young 1977:43-46). <br />The study area lies off the northwest corner of Grand <br />Mesa on the rim of Debeque Canyon. The Hunter Canyon <br />Formation is the massive cliff-forming sandstone that frames <br />the Colorado River drainage through Debeque Canyon. The Mount <br />Garfield Formation and Sego Sandstone underlies the Hunter <br />Canyon Formation and forms the bedrock of the project area. <br />2 <br />(New 8-28-92) <br />