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

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narrow. Overall, the study area is best described as very steep and
rugged with very minimal acrounts of flat ground. It is heavily
vegetated and ground visibility is linuted except in areas where pinyon,
juniper and sagebrush dominate (Figures 4, 5 acid 6).
While locals speak of the "North Fork Country", historically
speaking, the North Fork Valley is located on the western margin of the
"CUnnisun Country". 27us has beers described as follows:
lnchnically speaking, the Gunnison country includes all of
that land drained by the Gunnison lover and its tributaries.
Yet, because (;zuucison was the hub of related regions outside
of that description, the (7rnnison country included Ruch more
territory. Tb the east, the top of Monarch Pass at 11,312
feet forms one of the limits; to the south, the early center
of the San Juan Country, Lake City, holds forth. The western
border is Cimarron, early cattle center and irc~ortant Denver
and Rio Grande railroad station. The northern perimeter halts
at the rugged and unique town of Marble, located high in the
Elk Mountains, over fifty miles fran Gunnison.
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The Gunnison country has always been a land of extremes. Snow
has fallen in accounts exceeding 350 inches, causing mythical
[sic] two-story outhouses and twenty foot high clotheslines to
be built in tv.•ms like Crested Butte. Fifty-six below zero
has been recorded at the Taylor Reservoir to the northeast.
~e region has always been isolated, yet well known. Here
also the calm, seemingly harmless waters of the late sucmer
and fall can become raging torrents in the spring when the
runoff from the mountains descends into the valley waters.
The lard is so violent, fur trappers virtually ignored it; so
rugged that railroads skirted parts of it and failed in
others, so tough that the Ute Indians moved out and spent
their winters elsewhere. (Vandenbusche 1980:1)
The Ridge Site was named for its location on the prtminent ridge
which divides East Rnatcap Creek from Stevens Gulch (Figures 3 and 4).
This north-south trending ridge lime is about one km. long and serves to
bridga Fry hSesa on the south witkr the higher bluffs to the north. The
ridge crest varies between 7,200 and 7,400 feet above sea level. The
crest is mantled with quaternary glacial deposits of middle to late
Pleistocene age. 'T'hese are in the form of unsorted subangular, poorly
consolidated pebble to boulder-size detritus. This mantle has often
been modified by mass wasting processes. Incrd slide deposition of
Ilolocene to late Pleistocene age has resulted itc irregular hummocky
topography along the ridge (Colorado Westnnreland 1984) (Figure 4),
particularly on its west side.
Soils on the ridge are L~lson "Stony" and "Ver}~ Stony" lcximis with
the latter occurring on the very steepest slopes (Colorado Westnnreland
1984a) . The Lelson series are typical of mountain slopes in the area
and ere well drained with an underlying stratum of stony clay loam
followed by bedrock. It has a moderate to high water erosion factor and
is characterized by raprd ruunff. The groruld surface is stony to
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