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• INTRODUCTION <br />A cultural resource inventory was undertaken on a 60 acre parcel of land overlying proposed <br />underground coal mining operations by National King Coal on Ute Mountain Ute Lands in the Hay Gulch <br />area, approximately 5 miles southwest of Hesperus, Colorado (Figure 1). The inventory was done by Laurens <br />C. Hammack, Complete Archaeological Service Associates (CASA) on December 2, 1994 at the request of <br />Thomas Bird, Environmental Coordinator, National King Coal The field work was done under the authority <br />of Bureau of Indian Affairs, Albuquerque Area Office, Cultural Resource Permit CRSA 92-14 and Ute <br />Mountain Ute Tribal Operating Permit 95-157, issued to CASA. <br />PROJECT DESCRIPTION AND LOCATION <br />The survey parcel is located within portions of the N'/z SW'/4 and SE'/• NW%. Section 31, Township <br />35 North, Range 11 West, La Plata County, Colorado (Figure 2). The survey parcel was formerly part of the <br />Dunn Ranch, now owned by the Ute Mountain Ute Tribe, Towaoc, Colorado. The survey area overlies a <br />portion of a coal seam which is currently being mined by National King Coal from their mine located in the <br />northwest corner of Section 32. The coal being mined is at a depth of 300 feet below ground surface and is <br />being mined through a series of underground workings. There will be no surface disturbance. Although there <br />will be no surface disturbance, the Ute Mountain Ute Tribe required that a cultural resource inventory be <br />completed anyway. A complete description of the survey parcel, including details on cadastral location, area <br />surveyed, environmental setting, cultural resources and recommendations is presented following the body of <br />the report. The map references for this project are the 7.5 minute Hesperus and Kline, Colo. USGS <br />• quadrangles, dated 1963 and 1968 respectively. <br />CULTURAL HISTORY AND PREVIOUS RESEARCH <br />The project area is located just outside of the northeastern portion of the Colorado Plateau <br />Physiographic Province along the northeastern fringes of the San Juan Basin in what has been termed the <br />Northern San Juan Region Cultural Province. This area is within one of the most intensively-studied <br />archaeological regions in the country. 'Itvo. major centers of Anasazi culture, Mesa Verde and Chaco Canyon, <br />have dominated archaeological research in this portion of the southwest for over 100 years. The cultural <br />history of southwestern Colorado is more than adequately discussed in a number of sources, including volumes <br />by Nickens (1982), Eddy, Kane, and Nickens (1984), and Fuller (1988). <br />Additional background information for the immediate project area has been presented for several large <br />scale survey and excavation projects located east of the project area. In 1985, Archaeological Consultants of <br />Durango Colorado conducted an inventory along a portion of the Rifle-San Juan 345 KV Transmission Line <br />approximately eight miles east of the current project area. Besides providing information on the 44 sites <br />recorded, a good summary of the previous cultural resource investigations in the area is provided (Karlson and <br />Biggs 1985). As part of the Uranium Mill Tailings Remedial Action (UMTRA) Project sponsored by the <br />Department of Energy, CASA undertook a series of excavations on sites that were to be impacted by <br />relocation of the Durango Uranium Tailings to a disposal site in Bodo Canyon Area of Ridges Basin, eleven <br />miles due east of the current project. The resulting report (Fuller 1988) provides excellent information on <br />the Archaic to Pueblo I time periods. Additional work is to be conducted in the same general area if the <br />. Animas-La Plata Project sponsored by the Bureau of Reclamation ever gets off the ground. <br />2 June 1995 <br />