Jerry Peak Assessment, Custer County, Idaho 2005

The Challis Resource Area of the Salmon Bureau of Land Management has entered into an interagency agreement with the National Park Service’s Midwest Archeological Center to create a GIS-based model of site locations in the Jerry Peak Assessment area of southern Custer County, Idaho. The study area is approximately 27,579 hectares (68,149 acres) in size. The East Fork of the Salmon River bounds the study area on the west.

The ecology of the area is known as cold desert, but is well drained by several permanent creeks. The MWAC was asked to begin a study of the area as part of the BLM’s wild fire management area. The area has also been designated as potential for wilderness protection. Only 57 archeological sites have been recorded in the area. However, the archeological record is quite diverse and includes open habitation sites along the creeks, upland rockshelter and cave sites, and talus slope hunting blinds.