Ephemeral Archaeology on the Mountain of the Sorrel Deer, Delta County, Colorado
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United States Department of the Interior Bureau of Land Management Colorado EPHEM RAL A CHAEOLOGY ON THE MOUNTAIN OF THE SORREL DEER Steven G. Baker ~UL TURAL RESOURCE SERIES NUMBER 32 EPHEMERAL ARCHAEOLOGY ON THE MOUNTAIN OF THE SORREL DEER, DELTA COUNTY, COLORADO by Steven G. Baker Colorado State Office Bureau of Land Management U.S. Department of the Interior Denver, Colorado 1991 EPHEMERAL ARCHAEOLOGY ON THE MOUNTAIN OF THE SORREL DEER, DELTA COUNTY, COLORADO by Steven G. Baker Principal Investigator CENTURIES RESEARCH, INC. Montrose, Colorado Originally Prepared for: Colorado Westmoreland, Inc. Paonia, Colorado September 1, 1987 For Submission to: Uncompahgre Resource Area Bureau of Land Management Montrose, Colorado Colorado BLM Antiquities Permit C-4O159c (December 31, 1986) CRI Project No. 382 CWI Contract No. CE-86-258 COPIES OF THIS DOCUMENT ARE AVAILABLE FROM: Colorado State Office Bureau of Land Management 2850 Youngfield Street Lakewood, Colorado 80215-7076 or Montrose District Office Bureau of Land Management 2465 South Townsend Avenue Montrose, Colorado 81401 THIS DOCUMENT IS IN THE PUBLIC DOMAIN AND MAY BE QUOTED. IF PORTIONS OF THIS WORK ARE USED, PLEASE CREDIT EITHER THE AUTHOR(S) AND/OR THE BUREAU OF LAND MANAGEMENT. Cover Photo: The Grand Mesa 1ooki ng north across the Gunnison River Bottoms, near Delta, Colorado. The Spanish explorers of the 18th Century referred to Grand Mesa as La Sierra del Venado Alazan or The Mountain of the Sorrel Deer or Elk. Photo courtesy of Ben Walker, Delta, Colorado. Series Production: Frederic J. Athearn FOREWORD Small, nondescript, ephemeral archaeological sites are often ignored, surficially examined, and judged insignificant based upon a paucity of surface evidence. "Ephemeral Archaeology on the Mountain of the Sorrel Deer, Delta County, Colorado", authored by Steven G. Baker, clearly demonstrates how such sites, if appropriately addressed, can be important in providing crucial information to regional prehistory. In recent years the professional community has come to realize that the so-called proverbial "lithic scatter" can be extremely important and upon closer scrutiny can often provide valuable cultural and chronological information. These sites should not be just written off. The Bureau of Land Management operates under a policy of avoiding all sites when possible, even those sites perceived as insignificant. This monograph is the culmination of ten years of study and cooperative teamwork between Colorado Westmoreland Inc. and their affiliated Orchard Valley Coal Mine, the Bureau of Land Management, and State Historic Preservation Office. This study culminated in the excavation of two sites. The Ridge Site (5DTI71), a presumed game drive and kill locality, is considered a late Archaic or early Formative Stage site and is notable for the lithic assemblage associated with butchering. Excavations at The Roatcap Game Trail site (5DT271) included a Ute component consisting of a hearth and butchering area, a Formative Stage brush structure and hearth, and a possible transitional Archaic/Formative Stage component consisting of a use area with milling stones and hearth. This monograph should prove to be a valuable resource in further studies in the region and Baker is commended for recognizing the value of the seemingly unimportant lithic scatter. Richard E. Fike Bureau of Land Management Montrose District Dedication This volume is very humbly dedicated to the memories of my friends J. S. (Steve) Sigstad (1939-1989) and Ronald J. (Ron) Schmitt (1937-1981) of the U.S. Forest Service. Steve served as Regional Archaeologist for the Rocky Mountain Region of the USDA Forest Service from 1976 until his death in 1989. Ron was Recreation Staff Officer on the Grand Mesa, Uncompahgre and Gunnison National Forests from 1974 to 1977 and was in charge of managing cultural resources prior to the time when the forests obtained their own professional archaeological staff. My own early archaeological work in Western Colorado brought me into a close working relationship with these two men and my first local commercial efforts were conducted under their sponsorship. Although these gentlemen both crossed over the Great Divide on an early and untimely schedule, they left behind them a legacy of congeniality, professionalism and dedication in promoting the conservation of Western Colorado's archaeological resources, including those of the Grand Mesa. Together, these two men did much to shape the cultural resource management profession in Colorado and with it, the livelihoods of many of today's practicing archaeologists. This was not always a comfortable or popular mission for these gentlemen. We should all be grateful to them. Steve Baker Montrose, Colorado July, 1991 Steve Sigstad Ron Schmitt (1939-1989) (1937-1981) EPHEMERAL ARCHAEOLOGY ON THE MOUNTAIN OF THE SORREL DEER, DELTA COUNTY, COLORADO ABSTRACT By Steven G. Baker CENTURIES RESEARCH, INC. Ten years of intermittent cultural resource studies on behalf of Colorado Westmoreland Inc. 1 s Orchard Valley Mine are summarized in this volume. The total study area encompasses approximately 15,000 acres of rugged topography above the North Fork of the Gunnison River on the southeast flank of Grand Mesa in West-Central Colorado. This is adjacent to the route traveled by Escalante in 1776 when he reported on Sabuagana Utes as he ascended La Sierra del Venado Alazan (The Mountain of the Roan or Sorrel Deer), now known as Grand Mesa. The study area is focused on a wide zone of oakbrush on the ecotone between the Transitional and Montane zones of the mesa. The prehistoric settlement system on this ecotone appears to have consisted of seasonal individual family households. These clustered along game trails near water, apparently at the margins of this broad band of oakbrush. The ten year study program resulted in the recording of 10 aboriginal sites and 9 isolated finds as well as a quantity of historic Euro-American resources reported on elsewhere. In addition, 1986 witnessed excavation programs at two sites. The first was The Ridge Site (5DT771), an undated game drive and kill point. This component proved notable only in its presence and in the lithic assemblage from the butchering location. This assemblage consisted mostly of small utilized flakes. Excavations at The Roatcap Game Trai 1 site (5DT271) were substantial and isolated three spatially and stratigraphically discrete aboriginal components. The first, Component 1, was the most productive and consisted of the remains of a historic Ute household. This yielded the probable remains of an oak brush shelter along with a slab- lined hearth surrounded by discrete butchering areas where parts of nine or more elk, deer and bison were processed. The component is believed to represent a limited seasonal occupation by a walking Sabuagana Ute household which was participating, as part of a deme cluster, in procurement activities which included an emphasis on hunting. The faunal assemblage evidences a consistent pattern of meat distribution that is thought to have been kinship-based. The component I s living surface lay just beneath the sod and a comprehensive assemblage of utilized flake and other butchering tools from the female activity kit was recovered from this surface along with other tools related to food processing and acquisition. These included Uncompahgre Brownware pottery and a Desert Side-Notched projectile point. Radiocarbon dating and dendrochronology bracketed this occupation within the later 18th and early 19th Centuries. The assemblage is notable because of its preservation, comprehensiveness, purity of functional and apparent ethnic association, and its placement within a suggested chronology of local historic Ute culture change. This late summer/fall occupation is vii believed to be a wickiup-focused seasonal residential base from late in the Early Contact Period prior to extensive disruption of the contact/traditional culture system. Such disruptions were ushered in during the Utes' Phase of Conflict and Competition which became most serious in this region in the 19th Century. Component 2 contained the floor of a Formative Stage brush structure with a central fire hearth. It yielded a limited assemblage of heat-treated stone tools including a small, ovoid, corner-notched arrow point along with small, ovoid preforms presumably intended for production of similar points. A radiocarbon date of A.O. 760 ± 60 places this occupation squarely within the generalized BMIII Period, late within Irwin-Williams' Oshara Tradition, or within the Sagehen Phase of the Dolores chronology. At the local level, the occupation falls within Buckles' postulated Ironstone and Dry Creek Phases of the Uncompahgre Complex. The most likely associations for this component are believed to be with the still controversial 11 hogan builders 11 described by the Huschers, the Weimer Ranch site occupants in the San Miguel drainage, and perhaps with the Turner Look site occupants in Utah. It now appears that there may be some continuity in projectile point styles and the use of sma 11, ovoid preforms among these assemblages. Component 2 is believed to be a seasonal residential base and is cautiously assigned a Formative Stage 11 Fremont- l i ke 11 affiliation. Component 3 was an eroded 1i vi ng area focused about two mi 11 i ng stones and a hearth filled with fire-cracked rock. The site elements and artifact assemblage seem to have close parallels with the En Media and Trujillo Phases of the Oshara Tradition. The component yielded a poor radiocarbon date of A.O. 10 ± 410 which most likely places it at the interface of the Archaic and Formative Stages. The component is notable in its conformity to generalized early Basketmaker components as best synthesized by Irwin-Williams. Obsidian from the component derives from Cochiti on the Rio Grande in Southern New Mexico. Other elements in the lithic assemblage may also be exotic to the local area. A regional floresence in trading networks during the late Archaic is suspected in the lithics from this component but this is not demonstrated.