SWCA has provided cultural resources surveying and compliance for a 240-mile stretch of the Rockies Express/Entrega natural gas pipeline that runs through southern Wyoming. The entire REX/Entrega pipeline spans 1,679 miles from western Colorado to southeast Ohio and is one of the largest natural gas pipelines ever built in North America. SWCA services helped the client, Kinder Morgan, obtain permits through the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission. The pipeline crosses remote areas with abundant archaeological resources. Along the route, the SWCA team conducted several phases of cultural fieldwork ranging from surveying and site testing… …to post-construction data recovery excavations and construction monitoring. From 2005 to 2011, archaeologists surveyed, documented, and excavated a wide range of cultural material, including buried Native American campsites dating back to 5,600 years ago. Excavations at site 48CR6493, for example, revealed these 1,200-year-old buried firepit features. The main excavation block at 48CR1229 had even more treasures awaiting discovery. Among them were these 1,100-year-old cooking stones. One important site, the 1,600-year-old Joe Miller site, was preserved in sand on the side of this prominent ridge northwest of Laramie. The Joe Miller site has yielded more butchered elk bone than any other archaeological site in the region. At least 13 elk (and 4 pronghorn) can be accounted for. In total, the team unearthed more than 2,500 flaked stone artifacts, including stone dart tips like these from the Late Archaic period. In addition to prehistoric archaeological sites, SWCA researched historic sites including homesteads, transportation routes, and buildings such as the historic Ozone School (1917—1927). The pipeline crossed six portions of southern Wyoming’s Overland Trail, the ruts of which can be seen here. The Overland Trail was a shorter, safer crossing of the Continental Divide than the Oregon Trail. The REX pipeline also crossed two portions of the old Union Pacific Railroad, which today is a standard gauge railway. In addition to aiding National Historic Preservation Act Section 106 compliance, SWCA’s extensive data recovery and documentation for REX/Entrega has contributed greatly to southern Wyoming archaeology.
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