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Zirkel Wilderness High–Altitude Site Survey and Documentation

Medicine Bow–Routt National Forest, Colorado, 2004
by Angie Kralj KenCairn, FS Archaeologist

During the week of August 23–27, 2004, six PIT volunteers—Greg Breyta, Jim Goosens, Ira Jones, Lila Jones, Bruce Richards, and Tara Scoggan—aided FS Archaeologist Angie KenCairn in performing sample archaeological survey in the Zirkel Wilderness on the Medicine Bow-Routt NF in northwestern Colorado. The project’s objective was to gain a greater understanding of site function and distribution within the wilderness area where very little archaeological reconnaissance has been carried out in the past. Volunteers succeeded in locating and recording nine sites, including an NRHP-eligible cabin dating to the early 1920s and an extensive prehistoric site along a probable hunting-and-travel corridor across the Continental Divide. Volunteers trekked deep into the Zirkel Wilderness with the help of Wilderness Manager Jon Halverson, and pack horses Gus and Iron Eagle, and Cleo the mule. The PIT crew was dubbed the “Super 6” crew, and though they worked hard each day conducting the archaeological survey and site documentation, they also enjoyed, creating gourmet camp meals, napping in alpine meadows, and swimming and fishing in a high mountain lake.

(Photo: The “Super 6” crew from left to right: PIT volunteers Tara Scoggan, Greg Breyta, Bruce Richards, Ira Jones, Lila Jones, Jim Goosens, and FS Archaeologist Angie KenCairn. Zirkel Wilderness High-Altitude Site Survey and Documentation, Medicine Bow–Routt NF, Colorado, 2004.)
 
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