DOCUMENT


Archaeological Inventory in the Seep Ridge Cultural Study Tract, Uintah County, Northeastern Utah

In 1980 Nickens and Associates personnel completed a Class II cultural resource inventory of 10% of lands in the Seep Ridge Study Tract, a 109,400-acre area located in the southeast portion of the Bureau of Land Management Vernal District, Uintah County, Utah. One goal of the contract was the definition of suspected extremely low site density areas for management purposes. Utilizing a non-stratified systematic random sampling scheme, BLM preselected 274 40-acre sample units to be inspected. During the field inventory, 40 sites and 106 isolated finds were recorded in sample units. Cultural resources in the tract range in age from Paleo-lndian to historic Euro-American times. In contrast to the research design, which hypothesized low site density with exploitation of faunal resources along the White River and exploitation of floral resources in the dune fields northwest of Bonanza, cultural resources clustered on a major juniper-covered ridge system that apparently offered a combination of resources. High, medium and low sensitivity zones reflecting gross environmental variables important to site location were constructed. Twenty-seven sites (79-**%) were located in the high zone, defined by presence of juniper, for a site density of 6.5^ per square mile. Four sites (11.8%) were located in the medium zone, defined by presence of sand dunes without juniper. The site density of this zone is 1.52 per square mile. The low zone, with neither juniper nor dunes, accounts for 3 sites (8.8%) and has a site density of .68 per square mile.

Document Type / Category
Cultural Resource Series
Document Collection
BLM Library
State/Office
National Office
Author
Larralde, Signa L.; Chandler, Susan M.
Publication Date
1981