GEOARCHAEOLOGICAL INVESTIGATIONS IN THE MILFORD WIND CORRIDOR PROJECT AREA

Backhoe trenching and coring by Western GeoArch Research LLC and SWCA Environmental Consultants in the Milford Wind Corridor Project area, Utah, provides geological and soils evidence that elucidates several geoarchaeological topics. Backhoe trenching on the west flank of the Mineral Mountains documents aggradation of middle to late Holocene fan alluvium which exhibits increased down-slope potential for buried cultural zone intactness. A backhoe trench in Beaver Bottoms documents Historic-era dewatering of the Beaver River floodplain and resulting eolian deflation of late Holocene wetlands deposits and their reworking into silt-clay dunes. Coring in the bed of Lake Gunnison enhances understanding of latest Pleistocene and Holocene lakeside, streamside, and wetland occupation and resource procurement settings in the Old River Bed and Sevier River floodplain vicinity. Results of the geoarchaeological investigations provide important context for our understanding of prehistoric human occupations in the area between the west flank of the Mineral Mountains and the Beaver Bottoms from the terminal Pleistocene through the late Holocene.