Those sites in the vicinity of Placerville are within the riparian zone and floodplain of the San Miguel River valley or its tributaries, namely leopard Creek. Cottonwood trees and grasses characterize the vegetation of the area, and the soil is largely shallow, rocky alluvial deposits of brown sand and sandy loam. Juniper, pine, sagebrush, cheatgrass, wild rose, and some conifer trees cover the surrounding hills. Site elevations near Placerville range from roughly 7,300 ft. (2,225m) at the Ruffe Warehouse to 7,800 feet (2,377m) at Green Mountain Ranch. Sites in the Telluride vicinity are in an aspen/conifer subalpine forest with an elevation ranging from 8,100 ft. (2,469m) at the Ilium Power Plant to 11,190 ft. (3,4llm) at the Nellie Mine. The topography from site to site varies greatly. For example the Hillside Creamery is on the edge of the relatively flat and open valley floor of the main fork of the San Miguel River west of Telluride, whereas the Nellie Mine is on a very steep mountain slope covered with talus. More specific location and environmental information can be found in the description section of each site that follows.

The first European people to enter western Colorado were Spanish explorers. Juan de Rivera led three expeditions through the San Juan Mountains from 1761 to 1765 in search of mineral wealth (Mehls 1984). In 1776, the Escalante-Dominquez Expedition passed through western Colorado in search of a route between Santa Fe and missions in California.

Exploitation of the Southern Rocky Mountain’s natural resources by Euro- Americans began in the 1820s with the arrival of fur trappers. This industry lasted until the late 1830s when over-trapping and falling fur prices made such activities unprofitable (ORourke 1980). Euro-American use of western Colorado was slight in the following two decades, being primarily explorations by the U.S. Government. Use intensified, however, with the discovery of gold in Colorado in 1859. A veritable gold rush followed the discovery, bringing thousands of Euro-Americans to western Colorado. The Territory of Colorado was organized only two years later, in 1861. Beginning in the 1860s, limited placer mining in the San Juan Mountains at small camps like Bakers Park near Silverton confirmed the presence of gold in area but also accentuated the difficulty of extracting it (Curtis 1998).

The influx of Euro-Americans into the area inhabited by Ute Indians brought conflict. The Treaty of 1868 between the Utes and the federal government was an attempt to alleviate these conflicts by forming a large reservation on the western slope of Colorado, away from the primary mining areas (Ubbelohde et al. 1972). As mining continued to boom, however, many miners entered the reservation. • In 1873, the Brunot Treaty opened some 4 million acres of the reservation to Euro-American exploitation. As a result, mining camps quickly sprang up throughout the San Juan Mountains. Silverton became one the centers where thousands came to stake claims and develop mines in the surrounding area. Mining camps such as Red Mountain, Ophir, Rico, and Telluride were settled during this period. The Brunot Treaty served to increase hostilities between the Ute and Euro-Americans, however, finally resulting in the confinement of the Ute to small reservations in southernmost Colorado and eastern Utah in 1881.

As a result of the Brunot Treaty, mineral exploration in the San Juan Mountains correspondingly increased. The first mining claims in the Telluride area were filed in 1875. Improvements in transportation and technological advances in the reduction of precious ores resulted in the growth and expansion of mining in the region during the 1880s and early l890s. By 1890 a branch of the Rio Grande Southern Railroad reached Telluride. This stimulated mining activity in the region because the mines in the Telluride area could ship large quantities of ore that previously had been too expensive to move. The arrival of the railroad spurred extensive development of the region’s mines and the emergence of several large mining companies, such as the San Miguel Consolidated Mining Company which was incorporated in late 1891, that dominated the mining scene.

Generation of electricity in the San Juan Mountains was a major factor in maintaining profitability in the region’s mines beginning in the 1890s. It also played a key role in the development of the modern electrical industry in America. The Ames power plant near Telluride, constructed in 1890 and put on line in 1891, was the first alternating current electrical plant in the world. The plant was the brainstorm of Lucien L. Nunn, and it put the theories of Nikola Tesla and George Westinghouse into practice with the results of wide-scale electric generation and distribution as we know it (Anonymous n.d.:4-8; Anonymous 1978:8-10). By 1900, the Ames Plant had reached its capacity, and the Utah Power & Light Company decided to build a power plant at Ilium which was completed in 1902 (Utah Power & Light Company 1937). The town of Telluride and the surrounding mines received their electricity from these two plants. The new alternating current technology made direct current generating plants obsolete, Without these power plants, the large. scale economic development of the Telluride region would have been greatly inhibited.

The Panic of 1893 threatened the mining industry, and the repeal of the Sherman Silver Purchase Act led to an immediate and steep drop in the price of silver. Many of the mines in Telluride were principally gold producers, so the area was not as hard hit by the economic depression when compared to other mining regions in Colorado. Labor unrest in the late l890s and early l900s greatly affected the mines of the region, with a major strike taking place in 1901. A particularly violent strike in Telluride began in late 1903 and stretched though the first half of 1904. Brief increases in precious metal prices in the 1910s and l920s allowed mines to continue operating, though most of the major mining in the region had ceased by the late 1920s.

Other minerals played an important role in the history of the lower San Miguel region. Deposits of roscoelite ore bearing vanadium were discovered along the San Miguel River about 1901. Roscoelite occurs in sandy micaceous deposits in the Entrada and possibly Navajo sandstone (State of Colorado, Metal Mining Fund Board 1961). The addition of vanadium to steel increased its strength and was an important innovation in the use of steel for manufacturing and machinery. The first vanadium claims were located along Big Bear Creek west of Placerville (not to be confused with Bear Creek south of Telluride) in early 1901. Companies such as the Colorado Vanadium Company and the Rare Metals Mining and Milling Company operated in the Big Bear Creek area in the l9lOs; the General Vanadium Company mined deposits on the north side of the San Miguel River between Sawpit and Placerville during this time. The rail spur at Old Placerville was used because it was the closest rail access for the vanadium mines of the lower San Miguel River.

Occasional flourishes of activity have taken place at the region’s gold and silver mines since the 1920s, but none have been long lasting. Use of the high country for cattle and sheep grazing has been an annual event since the 1880s. Year-around dairying has taken place west of Telluride for many years. With the completion of the Rio Grande Southern in 1891, Placerville became a major shipping point for livestock. The Town of Placerville moved following the devastating flood of 1909 that began near the headwaters of the San Miguel River. "New" Placerville was platted near the Rio Grande Southern Railroad depot upstream (southeast) from "Old" Placerville, which was just downstream of the San Miguel River and Leopard Creek confluence. The livestock pens in Old Placerville were reported to be the second largest shipping point for cattle circa 1910 (Collman 1990:261). Tourism has become the mainstay for the areas economy since the 1960s. Development of the ski resort in Telluride has revitalized the town’s economy and led to the subdivision of many nearby ranches and extensive development in the Upper San Miguel basin. Placerville has been less affected by the growth in Telluride, though new construction and development are clearly evident along Colorado Highway 145.

PREVIOUS WORK

Prior to fieldwork, a file search using the Colorado Office of Archaeology and Historic Preservation’s on line Compass system was conducted in November 2003, to identify previous archaeological work and the locations of cultural resources within the project area. A handful of cultural resource surveys have been conducted within the study area. One site, 5SM117, the Placerville Schoolhouse, had been recorded in 1986 and determined that more data was needed to make an accurate ~valuation (Recorder Unknown). The file searches also revealed that many of the sites that the county initially wanted inventoried had already been recorded, and these sites were eliminated from the list. Most of these sites were in Norwood. Many of the remaining sites were on private property, and the county was unable to gain access to these sites for documentation. Fifteen sites remained on the list where property owners granted access and where no previous work had been done.

Project archaeologists also completed historic research. This entailed document searches at the San Miguel County Clerk’s Office, Telluride Historical Society, the Bureau of Land Management in Montrose, and Alpine’s library to discovery primary and secondary sources that helped establish the historic background of each site. Informal interviews were conducted to help determine the construction dates and previous ownership of certain buildings.