2010-11-16_PERMIT FILE - C1996083 (6)

Home Browse Search

• trappers, settlers, miners, and ranchers. Significantly, the Spanish expedition of Dominquez and Escalante, which passed near the study area along Hubbard Creek in 1776, was the first Euro- American incursion into the area. Removal of the Utes in 1881 freed the valley of the North Fork of the Gunnison for agricultural development, railroad construction, and permanent settlement. By the mid- 1880's this alluvial valley had been found suitable for fruit growing. Valley hay production combined with summer range in the surrounding mountains aided the establishment of a prosperous livestock industry until a severe winter kill in 1893 reduced many of the herds. The construction of an extension of the D &RG Railroad into the North Fork Valley by 1902 (as far as Paonia) aided fruit growers and cattlemen. Additional track laid into Somerset in subsequent years (by 1906) initiated the coal mining boom. Overviews of the history of the region are provided in the Colorado Historical Society's publication entitled Colorado Plateau Country Historic Context (Husband 1984) and in the Bureau of Land Management's publication Frontier in Transition (O'Rourke 1980). Significantly, a relatively new historical context has been published by the Colorado Council of Professional Archaeologists entitled Colorado History: A Context for Historical ArchaeoloQV (Church et al. 2007). Study Objectives / Research Design The purpose of the cultural resources investigation was to identify resources within the survey area, to evaluate these sites' eligibility for listing in the National Register of Historic Places (NRHP), and to make management recommendations for those sites found to be eligible or potentially eligible. The presence of prehistoric resources was considered a potential due to previously recorded sites in the region and historic resources were known to occur from previous observations in the area. Field Methods The survey was limited by heavy vegetation; ground cover ranged from 80 -to -100 percent overall. A 100 percent pedestrian cultural resources survey of the block areas was made by a crews of two to four persons that walked transects spaced at an average of 20 meters apart in areas not restricted by vegetation and steep slopes. Crew members worked from USGS 7.5' series maps. A total of approximately 1540 acres was inventoried. Cultural resources were sought as surface exposures and were characterized as sites or isolated finds. A site is the locus of previous human activity (50 year minimum) at which the preponderance of evidence suggests either a one -time use or repeated use overtime, or multiple classes of activities. For example: a) Isolated thermal features such as hearths are to be designated as sites, due to the interpretable function of such utilization and the potential for chronometric and economic data of recovery, b) Single element rock art panels are to be designated as sites due to the interpretable nature of such an event and the potential diagnostic value of the motif, c) Similarly, isolated human burials are to be designated as 0