2008-08-18_REVISION - C1980007 (3)

Home Browse Search

Limited-Results Archaeological Survey Form (Page 3 of 10) ?IV. ENVIRONMENT 18. General Topographic Setting: The project area is located on the Gunnison National Forest south of Somerset, Colorado. One cluster of drill sites lies to the north of Minnesota Reservoir. The majority are within an area bounded by Minnesota Reservoir to the west, Deep Creek to the east, and the Dry Fork of Minnesota Creek to the south. In addition, two locations are immediately east of Deep Creek. Within this rugged and mountainous region, the drill sites and associated access roads encompass a variety of topographic settings, including high ridge tops and side slopes, steeply sided drainages, and a few small, open meadows within the larger drainages. Elevations within the project area range from 7,560 ft (2,304 m) to 8,200 ft (2,499 m). Current Land Use: The surrounding landscape is primarily used for livestock grazing and various forms of recreation, mainly hunting. 19. Flora: The majority of the project area consists of dense shrub ecosystems dominated by Gambel oak, seiviceberry, chokecherry, and snowberry, with understories of grass and forbs that largely obscure the surface of the ground. Higher elevation areas and north-facing slopes are characterized by aspen and Douglas fir forests containing thick understories of shrubs, grasses, and herbaceous vegetation. 20. Soils/Geology: The bedrock geology of the project area comprises Cretaceous age Mesaverde sandstone and shale. Soils in the project area consist of silty and fine sandy loams. 21. Ground Visibility: Due to vegetation and duff cover, ground visibility in the project area was extremely poor, ranging from no visibility to a maximum of 70 percent in a few very limited areas. In most areas, however, visibility was typically less than 10 percent. *22. Comments: V. LITERATURE REVIEW 23. Location of File Search: Grand Mesa, Uncompahgre, and Gunnison National Forests, Delta, Colorado. Also, the Colorado OAHP's On-line Cultural Resource Database (Compass) was checked for cultural resources within the legal sections encompassing the project area on June 6, 2007. Date of USFS file search: June 12, 2007. 24. Previous Survey Activity In the project area: Two relatively small cultural resource inventories (Sanders 1984; Spath 1994) were identified as overlapping (i.e., falling partially within) three of the parcels defined for the present project area. The parcels and previous surveys are all in Section 29, T13S, R90W. No cultural resources were found during these inventories. In the general region: A number of cultural resource inventories have been conducted in the immediate vicinity of the project area as well as in surrounding areas (i.e., within one mile of the present project area). Table 1 summarizes these projects. In general, very few cultural resources were discovered during these inventories. In the immediate vicinity of the project area, only three cultural resources, 5GN1102, 5GN1103, and 5GN1734, have been recorded. All are isolated finds consisting of single prehistoric lithic artifacts. 0