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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SECTION IlI
1 SCbPE OF L~kK AND RESEF~FYY1l RATIONALE
General Discussion
Centuries Research was contracted by Colorado Westmoreland to
crnplete ari evaluation of the suspected game blinds at SUT'771 in order
to deternune the site's eligibility for inclusion on the National
Register of Historic Places. Centuries' plan was to accrnplish this by
means of a controlled shovel test excavation program designed to test
tlbe site content, extent and stratigraphy within the area of the lithic
` concentration and the most obvious of the stone alignments (Figure 8).
'i National Register eligibility could then be judged in terms of site
stratigraphy, size, context and cultural identity as these elements
ought together indicate potential for yielding information itrportant in
the prehistory of the North Fork Valley. If such potential were
indicated, the site may be determined eligible under eligibility
Criteria D of the National Historic Preservation Act (National Park
Service 1982 and Advisory Council on Historic Preservation 1979) • A
report was also to be prepared in keeping with Bureau of Land Management
and State Historic Preservation Office standards (BLM 1981 and Colorado
Historical Society 1986).
' As outlined in the 1984 baseline inventory and the 1986 inventory
for the Orchard Valley Mine (Baker 1989, 1986), the prehistory of the
North Fork Valley is virtually unwritten. It was only in the past two
• years that some idea of site density and distribution in the area was
gained as a result of the referenced cork for Colorado Westmoreland.
1 All that was even theta known was that a focus of prehistoric cultural
1 resources could be found at the mouth of the tributnzy valleys of the
North Fork, where streams issued from the high bluffs onto the upper
benches of the larger valley. There is as yet not enough information on
}land to make much crnment 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
(Aikens and Madsen 1986).
Beyond the local North Fork archaeological focus, it was
artticipatcd that the test program might yield information that would
contribute to our knowledge of Colorado's west central prehistoric
culture ountext and its relationship within the larger Great liasin
culture area (Recd 1989; Aikens and h]adsen 1986). The prehistory of
this area, as the home of the Ute People (Callaway, Janetski, and
Stewart 1986) is still only understood in a very limited way. As
outlined by Reed (1984), pruninent regional research concerns include:
1) a dearth of excavation data; 2) chronology; 3) Settlemstt Patterns;
4) Cultural Processes; 5) Derrography; and 6) Site Significance. Rrxd
discussed these problems as follows in his review of the status of
archaeological knowledge iii the region. In doing so, he affit~Y1 the
need for straight-rorward excavation data on regional prehistory.
•