Dominquez Archaeological Research Group – Trails and Roads

Description

One of the guiding inquiries for these projects concerned the location and recording of two trails, one in Spring Creek Canyon and one in Gunnison Gulch, that may have been used by Native Americans. DARG conducted an extensive literature review of historic maps, oral histories and memoirs to determine locations of Native American trails and historic pioneer roads of the Southern Uncompahgre Plateau. The following historic maps were consulted: those of F.V. Hayden’s survey of southwestern Colorado between 1874 and 1875, and a survey of western Colorado completed between 1874 and 1876; G. M. Wheeler’s maps of southwestern Colorado between 1875 and 1877; Louis Nell’s topographic map of Colorado from General Land Office surveys and other authentic sources in 1884; the USGS 15 minute quadrangles of Montrose (1909), and Paradox Valley (1916); and, the Uncompahgre National Forest map published by the USDA Forest Service in 1935.