Cultural Resource Inventory of the Duke Energy Campbell Hill Wind Farm Project in Converse and Natrona Counties, Wyoming

Project Name: Campbell Hill Wind Farm
Location: Converse and Natrona Counties, Wyoming
Rural and/or Urban: Rural
Client: Ecology and Environment
Dates: August - November 2008
CRA Project Manager: Ted Hoefer, III

Project Description: CRA of Longmont, Colorado was contracted by Ecology and Environment, Inc. to conduct a Class III cultural resources inventory of the Duke Energy Campbell Hill Wind Farm Project in Converse and Natrona Counties, Wyoming. The project included the construction of 66 wind turbines, a new substation, construction facilities, a new transmission line from the proposed substation to an existing substation, and access roads for the turbines. The project area encompasses 13,008 acres of private and State of Wyoming lands. CRA inventoried 3,998 acres including 3,167 acres in and around the proposed turbine locations, 335 acres for the access road corridors not within the area surveyed for the turbines, and 495 acres for the transmission line and site improvements.

The project was not located on Federal land and therefore would not normally have been mandated under the National Historic Preservation Act, Section 106 (NHPA) (16 U.S.C. 470f) However, as part of the application for permit under the Wyoming Industrial Siting Council, Title 35 Chapter 12 Section 109 Rule 1 Section 7 (xiii) (C), an evaluation of archaeological and historic resources is required. The guidelines set forth in Section 106 of the NHPA on conducting the survey and evaluating historic properties were followed.

In the project area, CRA recorded 10 new prehistoric sites ranging from the Foothill-Mountain Paleoindian Period to the Late Plains Prehistoric Period. Features encountered include cairns, tipi rings, rock built storage areas, and rock walls. Historic sites in the inventory included two homesteads and artifact scatters. A segment of the 1864 route of the Bozeman Trail, a major path to the gold strikes of Montana and Idaho, runs directly to the west of the project area. A historic assessment of this route was conducted and included with the project.