United States Department of Agriculture Forest Service Grand Mesa, Uncompahgre, and Gunnison National Forests REVISED DRAFT Forest Assessments: Cultural and Historic Resources March 2018 Fairview Peak Lookout, Gunnison National Forest. Constructed in 1912, it's the highest fire lookout in North America at 13,214 ft. In accordance with Federal civil rights law and U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) civil rights regulations and policies, the USDA, its Agencies, offices, and employees, and institutions participating in or administering USDA programs are prohibited from discriminating based on race, color, national origin, religion, sex, gender identity (including gender expression), sexual orientation, disability, age, marital status, family/parental status, income derived from a public assistance program, political beliefs, or reprisal or retaliation for prior civil rights activity, in any program or activity conducted or funded by USDA (not all bases apply to all programs). 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Submit your completed form or letter to USDA by: (1) mail: U.S. Department of Agriculture, Office of the Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights, 1400 Independence Avenue, SW, Washington, D.C. 20250-9410; (2) fax: (202) 690-7442; or (3) email: [email protected] (link sends e-mail). USDA is an equal opportunity provider, employer, and lender. Grand Mesa, Uncompahgre, and Gunnison National Forests REVISED DRAFT Forest Plan Assessments: Cultural and Historic Resources Contents Contents ........................................................................................................................................................ i Chapter 1. Introduction ............................................................................................................................... 1 Key Issues for Cultural and Historic Resources and Uses on the GMUG ................................................ 1 Summary Public Input ............................................................................................................................... 2 Use of Best Available Science .................................................................................................................. 2 Chapter 2. Context ...................................................................................................................................... 3 Context for Prehistoric Occupation and Use ............................................................................................. 3 The Paleoindian Period (13,500–8,000 B.P.) ........................................................................................ 3 The Archaic Period (8,000–AD 1) .......................................................................................................... 3 Formative Era (3000 BP- AD1450) ........................................................................................................ 4 Protohistoric Period (AD1300-1840) ...................................................................................................... 4 Context for Historic Occupation and Use .................................................................................................. 5 Transportation ........................................................................................................................................ 5 Mining .................................................................................................................................................... 6 Grazing/ Ranching ................................................................................................................................. 7 Irrigation ................................................................................................................................................. 7 Logging .................................................................................................................................................. 7 GMUG Administrative History ................................................................................................................... 8 Civilian Conservation Corps .................................................................................................................. 9 Information Gaps ..................................................................................................................................... 10 Chapter 3. Current Conditions and Trends of Cultural and Historic Resources ................................ 10 Heritage Program Managed to Standard (HPMtS) ................................................................................. 10 Status of GMUG Resources Inventory .................................................................................................... 13 National Register Listed Properties and Priority Heritage Assets ....................................................... 14 Traditional Cultural Properties ............................................................................................................. 16 Special Interest Areas .......................................................................................................................... 16 Resource Conditions ............................................................................................................................... 16 Artifact Assemblage ............................................................................................................................. 17 Trends...................................................................................................................................................... 19 Information Gaps ..................................................................................................................................... 19 Chapter 4. Sustainability .......................................................................................................................... 20 Economic, Social and Environmental Sustainability of Cultural and Historic Resources ....................... 20 Chapter 5. Current Forest Plan and its Context within the Broader Landscape ................................ 22 Existing Forest Plan Management Direction for Cultural and Historic Resources .................................. 22 Potential Need for Plan Changes to Respond to Cultural and Historic Issues ....................................... 23 References Cited ....................................................................................................................................... 25 Appendix A: Site Types ............................................................................................................................ 27 i USDA Forest Service List of Tables Table 1. Heritage Program managed to standard measures ....................................................................................... 12 Table 2. Current status of cultural resources ............................................................................................................... 14 Table 3. Properties listed on the National Register of Historic Places .......................................................................... 14 Table 4. Priority Heritage Assets .................................................................................................................................. 15 Table 5. Site condition data .......................................................................................................................................... 17 Table 6. The contribution of the use and enjoyment of cultural and historic resources to social, economic, and ecological sustainability ................................................................................................................................................ 22 ii Grand Mesa, Uncompahgre, and Gunnison National Forests REVISED DRAFT Forest Plan Assessments: Cultural and Historic Resources Chapter 1. Introduction This document is an assessment of the current known cultural and historic resources and uses on the five ranger districts of the Grand Mesa, Uncompahgre and Gunnison National Forests (GMUG), or the “plan area.” The plan area contains cultural resources that demonstrate human occupation and use for at least the last 13,500 years. American Indians, ancestral to the ethnic affiliations of the Ute people, have inhabited or utilized the resources of the area over much of this time span. Occupation and use of the plan area by Europeans, Anglo-Americans, and Hispanics has occurred over approximately the past 300 years. The plan area has been under the management of the USDA Forest Service (FS) beginning in 1892 (Battlement