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8. The Curecanti Archeological Project: 1980 Investigations in Curecanti National Recreation Area, Colorado.
Jones, Bruce A.

Construction-related archeological investigations were conducted by Midwest Archeological Center personnel in 1980 at 10 sites in Curecanti National Recreation Area, Colorado. Evaluative testing and mitigative salvage excavations occurred at small possible single component occupations as well as at larger demonstrated multiple component sites. Radiocarbon dates from the sites examined in 1980 range from approximately 7000 to 2000 B.P., and artifactual evidence of earlier occupation of the area has again been found. However, many of the radiocarbon dates from the Curecanti sites appear to fall between 6500 and 4000 B.P., and may indicate a relatively more intensive aboriginal occupation and utilization of land along the Gunnison River at that time. Cultural material recovered from the Curecanti sites suggests the presence in the region of Desert Culture-like hunting and gathering populations. Considerable variation in hearths and other charcoal-bearing features at the Curecanti sites cannot yet be explained, and additional substantive paleoenvironmental and subsistence data for the occupations along the Gunnison was not found.