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1 1 <br /> shaped valleys found in the San Juan Mountains(Blair 1996). <br /> A series of small drainage in the area including Placer Creek fimncl snow,melt and rain into <br /> the Animas River which is the major drainage in the area to the east/northeast. Snow can n cover <br /> the ground in this area from 8-10 month a year at this high elevation. <br /> The vegetation in this alpine area is defined primarily by grasses, and various wildflowers. <br /> At the north end of the valley some scattered spruce is present. Fauna in the area is limited to <br /> marmot and and various birds. <br /> Historic Land Use Patterns <br /> The geology of the San Juan Mountains had a significant bearing on historic development <br /> of the area Mineral prospecting began in the 1860s, and the presence of gold and silver in the <br /> mountains was soon verified The Silverton and Lake City Calderas, along with a down dropped <br /> block of ground called the Eureka Graben, were major structural features for localization of ore <br /> bodies(Fetchenhier 1996:80-In Blair 1996). Doming and collapse of the Silverton Caldem <br /> resulted in radical faulting,and these faults acted as a plumbing system where by hot mineral <br /> laden waters moved upward. These mineral laden waters were charged with metals such as gold, <br /> silver, lead, zinc,and copper. The minerals were leached into surrounding hosts rock from the <br /> waters as they encountered lower temperatures and pressures near the surface. The most <br /> productive ore deposits were open, space-filled vein deposits. <br /> Early mining activities in the San Juan Mountains were confined to placer mining <br /> techniques,but due to the geology of the mountains only a limited amount of precious minerals <br /> were available on the surface. To access the rich vein deposits required tunneling into the <br /> mountain. Such endeavors required large capital outlays, and the infrastructure to move, and <br /> process the ore. It was not until the 1870s in the Silverton area that the infrastructure and capital <br /> became available to undertake serious hard rock mining. The mining continued strong until the <br /> 1910s when most of the rich veins were played out, and production costs went up making minis <br /> less profitable. g <br /> EXISTING DATA AND LrrFRATURE REVIEW <br /> Previous Research in the Region <br /> Since the present study is focused on recording a single historic property and it,s history, <br /> this discussion will deal primarily with previous archaeological studies in close proximity to the <br /> Gold Prince Mine, and historic information pertinent to the area. A background literature search <br /> conducted with Colorado Historical Society provided some information on two previous projects <br /> conducted close to the project area Additional information was gathered from the Bureau of <br /> Land Management San Juan Resource Area(SJRA). Limited information was found from the <br /> state search, but a great deal of relevant information was gathered from the BIM records A <br /> series of research projects and Ping documents prepared by the SJRA deal specifically with the <br /> 3 <br />