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INTRODUCTION AND EXECUTIVE SUMMARY <br />Twentymile Coal Company, as part of its continuing coal mining, proposes to subside an <br />area covering about 8676 acres in the valleys of Fish Creek, Grassy Creek, and Scotchman's Gulch <br />south of Hayden, Colorado (see maps, Appendix A-E). Subsidence will occur in long narrow panels <br />extending across the area. Subsidence will not be consistent across the entire block. It will vary <br />from no subsidence near edges of each panel, to a maximum of about six feet near the center of each <br />panel. In order to address the potential effects of subsidence without conducting inventory of the <br />entire parcel, the Bureau of Land Management, Little Snake Field Office requested a Class I <br />overview and a research design for inventory. The subsequent Class I document (Metcalf and <br />McKibbin 2008) proposed a modified Class III inventory for the mine permit area. <br />Metcalf Archaeological Consultants, Inc. conducted the recommended modified Class III <br />cultural resource inventory for the proposed mine permit area for Peabody Energy/Twentymile Coal <br />Company's Sage Creek mine expansion in Routt County, Colorado. The project area includes about <br />8676 acres in T5N and T6N; R87W. The project area contains a mix of land ownership; 15 acres <br />are federal, managed by the Bureau of Land Management, Little Snake Field Office, 3003 acres are <br />State of Colorado lands, and 5657 acres are privately owned. Because of the modified Class III <br />methodology, actual acres of new inventory were about 4 on BLM, 1587 on State, and 2701 on <br />private, or a total of 4291.7 acres. An additional 378 acres ofterrain meeting this project's inventory <br />criteria had been covered by previous inventories, or were on slopes >30', and were not re- <br />inventoried. These surveys add up to about 54% of the project area covering all areas sensitive to <br />the effects of subsidence. <br />This cultural resource inventory was mandated by the National Historic Preservation Act of <br />1966 because portions of the project will occur on federal land, or will involve federally owned <br />minerals. Fieldwork was conducted during August - October, 2008 by Amy Nelson, Jenny Stahl, <br />Sally Metcalf and Sarah Jennings, crew chiefs and by Mike Metcalf or Ken Cannon (Project <br />Manager). Crew members included Renee Campbell, Mike Carlisle, Dean Merrell, Randy Van <br />Landingham, and Noelle Pawlowski. Tracy Bott drafted the project graphics and Sally Metcalf and <br />Jake Niswanger assisted with site form production. All work was completed under the stipulations <br />of Colorado Cultural Resources permit CO-2008-10 (expires 2-28-09) and Bureau of Land <br />Management (BLM) cultural resources use permit C39290 (expires 9-8-10). <br />Inventory resulted in discovery and documentation of 18 new sites and the visiting and <br />updating of an additional 19 previously recorded sites. Of the total 37 sites, 25 are prehistoric, nine <br />are historic, and three have both prehistoric and historic components. Of these, 24 have <br />recommended evaluations of "not eligible" for the NRHP. Four sites are evaluated as eligible, and <br />nine sites remain in the "need data" category. One need data site, 5RT139, was not relocated with <br />in the project area and requires no further work for the current project. No subsurface testing was <br />conducted as part of this inventory. Forty-nine isolated finds (43 prehistoric, six historic) were also <br />recorded as part of this inventory. All of these isolated resources are recommended as "not eligible".