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Class /ll CulturQ! Resourre <br />• <br />TABLE 1 <br />KNOWN CULTURAL RESOURCES IN OR NEAR THE PROJECT AREA i <br />SITS # Field # Class Site Type Source Evaluation <br /> <br />SLA7200 <br />MM-4582 <br />Prehistoric <br />Open camp MAC Not <br /> 1997 eligible <br /> <br />SLA7201 <br />MM-4583 <br />Prehistoric <br />Open camp MAC Not <br /> 1997 eligible <br /> <br />SLA7214 <br />MM-IF <br />Prehistoric <br />Isolated find MAC Not <br /> 1997 eligible <br />SLA7215 MM-IF Prehistoric Isolated find MAC Not <br /> 1997 eligible <br /> <br />SLA7216 <br />MM-[F <br />Prehistoric <br />Isolated find MAC Not <br /> 1997 eligible <br />The files search covered a polygon defined by four UTM coordinates that encompasses <br />all of the proposed contour cut, pond, and fill areas. This files search area also includes <br />the original loadout area, the loadout area, the railroad spur corridor, the eastem portion <br />of the P3 haul road corridor, and the eastem edge of the surface mine area. All of these <br />areas were part of the 1996 cultural resource survey (McKibbin et al 1997), and a °w of <br />-- them were tested in 1997. The areas with the highest densities of known sites are in the <br />' original loadout azea and the loadout area on southeast facing benches and slopes. These <br />previously surveyed areas of high site density overlap with the proposed contour cut <br />areas, and where they overlap, no new survey will be needed. From the results of the <br />previous survey, it is expected that three or four sites will be found on the unsurveyed <br />bench azea west of the loadout, and that very few sites or isolated finds will be discovered <br />on the steeper slopes in the remainder of the project area. These sites aze most likely to <br />be open camp or open lithic sites with little or no potential depth. <br />The project area is located around the lower reaches of Lorencito Canyon on the south <br />side of Picketwire Valley, about fifteen miles west of Trinidad, Colorado. This area falls <br />within the prehistoric context for the Arkansas River Basin (Zier and Kalasz 1999), and <br />the Colorado Southern Frontier Historic Context (Mehls and Carter 1984}. The general <br />cultural contexts For the project area are summarized in the latter two RP3 documents. A <br />more complete discussion of the specific prehistoric and historic context of Lorencito <br />Canyon is given in IvlcKibbin et al (1997). Lorencito Canyon is located at the northern <br />edge of the Maxwel[ Grant created in the mid-1840s by the newly established Mexican <br />government and confirmed by the Treaty of Guadalupe-Hidalgo in 1848 when the United <br />States assumed control of this region. The Maxwell Grant included over two million <br />. acres in Colorado and New Mexico. These lands were settled in the traditional Hispanic <br />pattern, with small extended family villages located principally along arable bottomlands <br />such as the Picketwire Valley. Colorado Coal and Iron, one of the predecessors of <br />Colorado Fuel and Iron (CF&I), began to develop coal reserves around Trinidad and in <br />6 <br />