2011-06-15_PERMIT FILE - C1981038 ‎(2)‎

• Permit No: C1981038
• IBM Index Class Name: Permit File
• Doc Date: 6/15/2011
• Section_Exhibit Name: Volume 9B Archaeology Appendix Table of Contents Part 1
• Media Type: D
• Archive: No

SECPION III
J • PROBLFS7 ORIENTATION AND RESFAItC1~ RATIONALE
Centuries Research was contracted by Colorado Westmoreland to
crnQlete an evaluation of 517T271 in order to determine the site's
eligibility for inclusion on the National Register of Historic Places.
Centuries' plan was to aco~lish this by means of a controlled test
program designed to test the site content, extent and stratigraphy.
National Register eligibility wuld then be judged in terms of site
stratigraphy, size, ~ntext and cultural identity as these elements
might together indicate potential for yielding infornation important in
the prehistory of the North Fork Valley. If such potential were
indicated, the site might be determined eligible under eligibility
Criteria D of the National Historic Preservation Act. A report was also
to be prepared in keeping with bureau of Land Management and State
Historic Preservation Office standards.
As outlined in the 1984 baseline inventory and the 1986 inventory
for the Orchard Valley Mine, the prehistory of the North Fork Valley is
virtually unwritten. It was only in the past two years that sane idea
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of site density and d~.strrbutron rn the area was gained as a result of
the work for Colorado Westmoreland. All that was even then known was
that a focus of prehistoric cultural resources could be found at the
mouth of the tributary valleys of the North Fork, where streanLS issued
fran the high bluffs onto the upper benches of the larger valley. There
is as yet not enough information on hand to make much camp~t about date
ranges or cultural affiliation for these resources except to state that
they appear to be of a generalized Archaic-like identity which is
typical of the Great Basin culture area.
Beyond the local North Fork archaeological focus, it was
anticipated that the test program might yield information that would
contribute to our knowledge of Colorado's west central prehistoric
culture orontext and its relationship within the larger Great Basin
culture area. The prehistory of this area, as the here of the Ute
People is still only understood in a very limited way. As outlined by
Feed, prominent regional research concerns include: 1) a dearth of
excavation data; 2) chronology; 3) settlement patterns; 4) cultural
processes; 5) demography; and 6) site significance. Reed discussed
these problems in his review of the status of archaeological knowledge
in the region. In doing so, he affirmed the need for straight-forward
excavation data on regional prehistory.
It was against the regional research background sa[rt~rized by Reed
that the excavation program at 5DT271 was initiated. The first
obligation was to see if there was an
to the research danai~s outlined
chronological occupational record of
this record is as follows:
y archaeological potential relative
by Feed within the generalized
the area. As outlined by Reed,
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