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Limited - Results Archaeological Survey Form (Page 3 of 8) <br />IV. ENVIRONMENT <br />18. General Topographic Setting: In general, the project area is located in Twentymile Park <br />northwest of Oak Creek, Colorado and northwest of Fish Creek. The access road traverses cow <br />pasture and irrigated fields west of County Road 27 along relatively flat terrain with some rolling <br />hills. The borehole pad is situated on a low east -west trending knob in the Twentymile Park <br />valley with higher ridges to the west that are part of the Williams Fork Mountains. Fish Creek <br />Canyon is about a mile to the south. <br />Current Land Use: Livestock grazing, recreation <br />19. Flora: The project area, especially at the proposed borehole location, is heavily vegetated with <br />tall grasses, forbs, and thick low sagebrush. The access road traverses areas with less dense <br />vegetation consisting mostly of pasture grasses. <br />20. Soils /Geology: Surface sediments are predominantly alluvial in nature and consist of a dark <br />brown silty loam with a small amount of small gravels and few larger cobbles. Subsurface <br />geology is composed of sandstone, shale and major coal beds of the Williams Fork Formation <br />which are sedimentary and igneous rocks from the Early Tertiary and Late Cretaceous Age <br />(Tweto 1979). <br />21. Ground Visibility: Surface visibility was poor at the borehole location, varying from about 30- <br />50%, and was limited due to thick grass, sagebrush, and wildflower cover. Along the proposed <br />access road, surface visibility was good (about 80 -90 %). <br />22. Comments: Special attention was paid to areas of exposed soils and subsurface contents in <br />cut banks and eroded areas. <br />V. LITERATURE REVIEW <br />23. Location of File Search: OAHP- Compass online database <br />Dates: 07/08/2011 <br />24. Previous Survey Activity - In the project area: Three previous cultural resource inventories <br />cover the majority of the proposed 16LT access road. These protects are MAC's Twentymile <br />2005 Seismic Lines, Drill Locations, and BLM Block (Metcalf 2004, SHPO# RT.LM.R84); MAC's <br />Peabody West Mine Subsidence (O'Brien 2007, SHPO #RT.LM.R87), and MAC's Twentvmile <br />Proposed Seismic Lines, Drill Locations, and Air Shafts (Metcalf 2003, SHPO #RT.CM.R4). <br />However, none of the proposed access road was excluded from survey for the current project. <br />None of the proposed 16LT Borehole pad is covered by previous inventory. <br />