CO - Wells Gulch: Developmental history/additional historic context

 By Mark Henderson and Rachel Preston Prinz

Period of time when it is known or projected to have been occupied or used.

The Wells Gulch Old Spanish Trail segment is inextricably tied to the development of the American fur trade with the Ute Indians in the first quarter of the 19^th Century.  While there is a vast collection of historical literature on the fur business in St. Louis, Taos, Utah and Colorado, detailed itineraries, diaries or descriptions of the use of trails in this area are absent.

The Dominguez-Escalante Expedition, in pursuit of a direct route from Santa Fe to Monterrey, passed by but did not travel as far west as Wells Gulch when they reached the junction of the Uncompahgre and Gunnison Rivers near modern Olathe , Colorado in late August of 1776 (Warner and Chavez 1995:30). 

As early as 1825, entrepreneur Antonine Robidoux established a trading franchise with the Ute Indian bands with the establishment of Fort Umcompahgreat the Gunnison River crossing. Robidoux also established Fort Uintah at the confluence of the Uintah and Whiterocks River over 200 miles to the northwest in the vicinity Fort Duschesne around 1830 (Wallace 1953:14-15). 

There only one account that reasonably establishes the North Branch for commercial purposes between New Mexico and California between 1829 and 1848.  This is the brief statement written in 1877 by Michael C. White (on file at the Bancroft Library UCb112183086 218534581 [Hafen and Hafen 1993:182]):

In April, 1839, I started from Los Angeles for New Mexico, as far as Taos.  I accompanied a New Mexican expedition carrying horses and mules.  I carried fifty head, mostly horses of my own and reached Taos in July without anything very important happening on the way.  Had a little skirmish with the Utes on the Red River [Colorado River?].

Since there are few other passable routes in the area – especially for large caravans of livestock,  the corridor paralleling the Gunnison River north of the Dominguez Rim and south of Grand Mesa would have likely been used as the livestock driveway for this traffic. 

There may have been other eastbound livestock drovers that used this corridor as a “backdoor” to sell horses and mules as draught animals for Santa Fe and Chihuahua wagon-based commerce, as Weber states (1971:93-94):

Interestingly, both Pratte and the Robidoux brothers [later Taos based trappers and traders] made Taos their first stop [in 1825 coming from Council Bluffs] and never took their merchandise into Santa Fe.  This seems to have been the pattern for those who used the Taos Trail to enter New Mexico.  Although the border guard, Rafael Luna, and the Taos alcalde, Severino Martínez, were empowered to intercept Americans and examine their invoices and merchandise, it seems to have been customary at this time to send to Santa Fe for the customs collector to come to Taos for the final assessment.  The traders (were?) reluctant to carry their goods on to Santa Fe if they did not intend to market them there because, as they complained, the road was too rough.  Sylvestre Pratte, although a novice in New Mexico, relied on the common expedient of burying some of his goods on the eastern side of the Taos mountains before entering the settlement to avoid paying duty.  The Robidouxs, when they arrived, probably did the same thing.  Pratte then journeyed to Santa Fe to hire the services of the tariff collector, Juan Bautista Vigil y Alarid, apparently taking James Baird along to act as an interpreter.  Vigil took some time reaching Taos, where one contemporary recorded in his diary on November 8 that Vigil ‘has been expected every day for a Week past.’  He finally arrived at Taos on November 12.

Hafen and Hafen (1993:181, 197-202) conclude that the route from Taos to the north through Cochetopa Pass and the crossing at Grand Junction was used as an emigrant wagon route to California by the Pope and Slover families to escape the troubles of the 1837 rebellion in Taos over tax reform, which had anti-Texan overtones  forcing the Texan families Pope and Slover to relocate.   In a report by Antoine Leroux to “Senator” T.H. Benton in 1853, it is stated (Hafen and Hafen 1993:198):

Wagons can now travel this route to California, and have done it.  In the year 1837, two families named Sloover [Slover] and Pope, with their wagons and two Mexicans, went from Taos that way.

To rectify the accuracy of this account with historical evidence requires several inferences.  The information was published in 1853, apparently to support deliberations in Congress advocating the planned Railroad Survey on the 38^th and 39^th parallels (Gunnison Survey) that was ordered in late May 1853 (Beckwith 1855: 1).  T. H. Benton (John C. Fremont’s father-in-law), who at the time was serving as US Representative from Missouri, was promoting establishment of a route to the Pacific with origin in Missouri.  One of the objectives of the Gunnison Survey was to show the practicability for development of a wagon route to the Pacific, intersecting what he called the “Spanish Trail.”  For this purpose, Gunnison brought 16 freight wagons, an ambulance and an instrument wagon (altogether using over 100 draught mules).  With the specific intent of intersecting the “Spanish Trail,” Gunnison enlisted the services of Antoine Leroux, a long time  Taos trapper turned guide and prosperous sheep rancher.   Why Gunnison would have departed from the established trail from Cochetopa Pass to Robidoux’s abandoned trading post on the Uncompahgre (via Powderhorn on Cebolla Creek) can be explained by the impracticality of that route for a wagon route or later railroad and the larger scale of military freight wagons, as Antoine Leroux advised Gunnison (Horn 2010:1). 

The use of the route all the way to California for wagons by the Slover-Pope party or otherwise is almost certainly refuted by this statement by Gunnison (Nelson 2003:72):

I have had an old trapper [undoubtedly Antoine Leroux] here [at Fort Massachusetts] to confuse me about the road onwards.  These fellows were on a different business in early times and never dreamed of road making in such terribly rocky & chasmy places & their descriptions are very confused … .  Our road difficulties are ahead no doubt.  No wagons have ever been farther than Grand River I am now credibly informed.  If I get through it will be a triumph – but I shall at least try … .

The passage of wagons as far as the Grand River over the “North Branch” prior to Gunnison’s 1853 effort should be viewed with skepticism.  Contextual evidence is that this was a latter day fabrication to promote the interests of St Louis businessmen to establish the “Central Route” to the Pacific as the principle emigrant and freight road under US dominion.

An account with more geographic specificity to the Wells Gulch trail segment comes from the Williams account in August 1842 (Wallace 1953:21):

August 1^st.  We camped under a large rock, by a small stream, where we could get but little grass for our animals [having left Robidoux’s fort on the Uintah on July 27^th including a two day lay-over on the trail to wait for replacement of runaway servants]. Next night [August 2^nd] we lay under the Pictured Rock, and being sheltered from the rain, slept very comfortable. Next day [August 3^rd] we traveled over rough roads and rocks, and crossed the Grand River [the crossing at Grand Junction], a branch of the Colorado, which runs into the Gulf of California, at the head thereof.  Next day [August 4^th] we crossed another fork of Grand River [later renamed the Gunnison River], and came to Fort Compogera [Fort Uncompahgre], below the mouth of the Compogera [Uncompahgre River confluence with the Gunnison at Delta, Colorado].

Two other accounts of travelers using the Robidoux routes between Fort Uinta and Taos are known from 1842: that of Rufus Sage and Dr. Marcus Whitman (Nelson 2003:40-64).  Sage apparently took a trail north from Taos to Fort Uintah that did not pass through Fort Uncompahgre.  Whitman did spend some time at Fort Uncompahgre after reaching it via the establish crossing of the Colorado near Grand Junction (Mowry, 2006:156-161).

The last information on the operations at trading Fort Uncompahgre are reports of the destruction of the Fort by Utes in the Fall of 1844 and the subsequent abandonment of the Robidoux trading interests in Ute Country (Weber 1971:215-216).

No historical accounts have been found of the trading pack trail route in Ute Country until 1848 George Brewerton accompanied Kit Carson carrying military dispatches from Los Angeles to Washington DC regarding the US conquest of California .  There is ambiguous geographic detail in the Brewerton travel account from Los Angeles to Taos between May 4 and June 14, 1848 (Hafen and Hafen 1993:317-339). There has been debate about the route travelled eastward after the perilous crossing of the Colorado River at Green River, Utah (Simmons in Brewerton 1993:xviii; Hafen and Hafen 1993:332-335).  In his introduction to the Brewerton account, Stallo Vinton suggests that Brewerton followed the “regular Spanish Trail, which again is the shortest route” (Brewerton 1993:11) but the weight of evidence favors the conclusion of Hafen and Hafen (1993:336-337) that Brewerton enters the “Taos Valley” over 100 miles and five days travel north of Taos (Brewerton 1993:122-144):

June 3 – Crossing Grand River [Green River]

June 5 – Two days later crossing Green River [Colorado River at Grand Junction]

June [6] – Eating horsemeat

June [7] – Entered Rockies finding wild game

June  [8] – “From these rugged mountain paths we at length emerged descending into the beautiful plains known as Taos Valley [page 131].”

June [9] – Camp with Mosquitoes [page 132 -134]

June [10] – Encounter with “Mexican traders, who had penetrated thus far into the wilderness for the purpose of trafficking with the Indians [page 135].”

June [11] – Camp near Indian camp

June [12] – We had, upon leaving our last night’s camp, nearly one hundred miles before reaching the first settlements in New Mexico, the nearest place of safety; and it was now determined to make the distance without delay [page 136]…About fifty miles of Taos we met several hundred Utah and Apache Indians”[page 290].  Encounter with Indians from encampment “of nearly two hundred lodges” [page 137].  “We rode hard, and about midnight reached the first Mexican dwellings which we had seen since our departure from the Pacific coast.  This town being nothing more than a collection of shepherds’ huts, we did not enter but made camp near it [page 142].”

June – [13] Layover at village [Questa] “before departing for Taos, now distant but one day’s journey.”

June 14 – Carson travels ahead arriving in Santa Fe , Brewerton arrives in Taos on Saturday, and stays over until Tuesday morning.

June [17]– Overnight with Village Priest

June [18] – Overnight with Alcalde

June  19 – Arrived Santa Fe

Brewerton’s account is important for the observations on cultural conditions along the corridor that had now been labeled the “Spanish Trail” by the Americans that had taken possession of the former Mexican territories of Nuevo Mexico and California under the terms of the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo.

There are four accounts after the period of significance of the Old Spanish Trail that are critical to understanding the nature and conditions of the Wells Gulch trail segment during the period of 1829-1848.  These accounts further detailed in section 8 are: the mule pack train transport of E. F. Beale as Indian Agent to California in July 1853 (Heap 1855); the Gunnison Expedition account in September 1853 (Beckwith 1855) which intercepted the “Spanish Trail” and demonstrated that wagons could negotiate the passage; the Carvahlo account of the final Fremont expedition in winter 1854 (Carvahlo 2004) and the Loring account of military wagon road improvements in  1858 (Haffen 1941).

Identity of Persons, Ethnic Groups, or Achaeological Cultures

The North Branch of the Old Spanish National Historic Trail is inextricably tied to European relationships with Ute Indians and the fur trade on the Western Slope of Colorado and the Eastern Great Basin. The region between modern Grand Junction and Montrose is the core area of the Taubeguache Utes (Simmons 2000:18). In summer of 1776 the Dominguez-Escalante expedition encounter many Ute camps in the Uncompahgre region (Warner and Chavez 1995).  Antoine Robidoux undoubtedly established trading Fort Uncompahgre strategically at the crossing of the Gunnison River in the heart of Ute territory.  The sacking of Fort Uncompahgre in 1844, and Robidoux’s abandonment of his commercial interests in the vast Ute domain, reflects a turning point in Mexican-Ute relationships and the ability of the Mexican government to control the Northern frontier.  Theuneasy, but relatively peaceful relationships that Armijo reports with natives in 1829 along his route to California, has radically changed by 1844.  In this period the Utes had gone from relatively passive trading partners, to unsuppressed raiders, running off horses from the herds being driven back to New Mexico and Missouri.  In 1848 Brewerton (1993) also encounters dense Ute settlements on his route, inferred to pass through the Gunnison River basin between the modern communities of Grand Junction and Montrose.  In summer 1853 (Heap 1854; Beckwith 1855) and winter 1854 (Carvalho 1993) there are encounters with large Ute encampments in the area.  Carvalho provides a hair-raising account of the Fremont Expedition being harrassed by Ute warriors intent on extracting payment for passage through their territory (Carvalho 1993:96-104).  This account took place during and after the crossing of the Gunnison almost certainly on the Wells Gulch trail segment. Though after the period of significance of the Old Spanish National Historic Trail, it reflects antagonistic relationships with Ute communities when the woven woolen goods “products of the country” ceased to be key to commercial exchange when the US took possession of California and New Mexico.

Associated Property Type: Historic Trail

The Wells Gulch key observation segment is approximately eleven (11) miles long and generally follows the alignment of modern US Highway 50.  Approximately 8.4 miles of this distance contain visible alignments which indicate the location of the pack trail, wagon road and livestock driveway that may have been in use for long distance commercial purposes between northern New Mexico and southern Alta, California.  The intact traces are located in four (4) trail segments, two (segments 3 and 4) have been researched in detail and a report written (Horn 2005) and two of which have been researched in detail and a report is pending(Horn, in preparation) as part of research funded by the Bureau of Land Management under the American Restoration and Recovery Act (ARRA).

The landscape of the Wells Gulch segment, even for a cognizant wayfarer travelling on US 50 at 70 miles per hour, still affords “an opportunity to vicariously share the experience of the original users” (16 USC 1251) of the historic route.  The following description of the four segments in the Wells Gulch section reinforce the association of the landscape with the historical route.

The documented trail alignment circumnavigates steep descents into the heads of drainages descending through the Dominguez Rim to the Gunnison River cut by ascending the less precipitous ridges of pediment remnant terrace deposits on the toe of Grand Mesa.  The basalt cobble armor and shrub vegetation protects the loose silty soils.  Once disturbed, these sediments are highly prone to downcutting and erosion, which can be accelerated by monsoon torrents in any alignment that runs parallel to the slope. 

Contibuting Site 1 – West of Alkalai Creek.  Starting at the high voltage powerline at 4980 feet from the south eastern margin of National Register site boundary, this alignment is approximately 1.25 mi in length.  The identified segment rises gently up drainage in a northwesterly direction from the disturbance of the high voltage powerline and terminates in the disturbed right-of-way of US 50 at 5080 feet, with an overall grade of less than 100 feet per mile, or approximately 2% slope.  Aerial photographs reveal that the alignment extends about 2 miles southeast to the projected crossing of the Gunnison River just west of the suspected location of Fort Robidoux.  This alignment reflects a change from the Gunnison crossing of the “Uncompahgre” in 1853 (see map) west of Fort Roubidoux and the 1877 Salt Lake Wagon crossing east of Robidoux Creek in essentially the same location as current US 50.  

The braided pack trail contributing structure is an alignment within site 1 which is indicated by the later wagon road and contributes to this significant historic property.  The overlying wagon road structure which is inferred to date to 1853 and after  (“Salt Lake Wagon Road”) is important in its own right and may be eligible to National Register under other themes and periods of significance. 

Contibuting Site 2 - Dominguez Rim flats.  After a half mile break where the alignment is overlain by US 50, Segment 2 picks up at a slight rise to the north of the highway to avoid the canyon of an un-named drainage flowing south into the Gunnison River.  A short straight segment appears to be for a telephone or telegraph alignment determined by the lack of disturbance along a treadway, the presence of glass insulators and stone post “collars” of local basalt.  More clearly discernable is a segment of graded curved wagon road alignment between the straight pole line and the road cut of the US 50 roadcut.  It is inferred that this “grade” is placed on top of the pre-existing “pack trail.”  The central portion of Segment 2 of about 3 miles, crosses and recrosses US 50, and the straightness of this portion of the alignment begs the question that it is the remnant of a pole line, rather than the wagon road which are commonly  overlain by the more modern highways.  Site 2 starts at an elevation of 5120 feet and ends at 5190 feet with a maximum height of 5260 feet. The segment terminates in a side drainage of Wells Gulch where it disappears in the disturbance from the construction of the modern highway.

At the western end of Site 2 is a distinct single track segment contributing structure about 1/8 mile in length to the north and paralleling a graded boulder-bordered wagon trace which is projected to rejoin after being lost in a drainage bottom.  The wagon trace has a major washout, with a “work around” on either side where it traverses a road cut and then follows the drainage, apparently on the same alignment and destroying the earlier single track “pack trail.” 

The braided pack trail structure alignment, a contributing structure  of Site 2, is indicated by the later wagon road alignment and contributes to this significant historic property.  The overlying wagon road, where detectable, which is inferred to date to 1853 and after (“Salt Lake Wagon Road”)  is important in its own right and may be eligible to National Register under other themes and periods of significance.  The alignment  overlain by the modern highway is a non-contributing sture that  does not contribute to the eligibility of the Old Spanish Trail structure.

Contributing Site 3 - Fools Hill and Wells Gulch. This segment starts at the Wells Gulch drainage and crosses a steep narrow ridge labeled on the USGS 7.5 minute map as “Fools Hill.”  It is inferred that Gunnison’s camp of September 17-18, 1853 (Camp 67 “on hill” [Beckwith 1855:120]) was on “Fool’s Hill” or, as mapped, on a hill just south of Wells Gulch overlooking Wells Gulch Spring to the north.

There are four alignments identified crossing Fools Hill. 

The northernmost alignment is a contibuting structure that features a steep eroded trace perpendicular to the contours ascending 200 feet in 0.2 miles (starting at 5160 feet and rising to 5360 feet in a distance of 1400 feet) and for a 200 foot section that has been downcut into a gully that in places is more than 8 feet (2 meters) deep.  This is inferred to be the original alignment of the pack trail, that probably was also used by wagons (Gunnison) before it became too eroded and a curving even grade was constructed.  The trace of this alignment is lost in the aeolian sediments and vegetation on the level mesa top.  A series of parallel single track alignments are visible on the descent on the west side of the ridge top .  These traces on the west slope are not as steep as on the east side (descending from 5360 feet to 5240 feet in 750 feet) and the down-cutting is not nearly as severe.

On the level ridge top is a short segment of telegraph and telephone pole lines with a basalt stone collar (cairn) on the western edge of the ridge.

The Salt Lake WagonRroad grade (Horn 2005, Site 5DT854.1) is intact from the Wells Gulch drainage, ascending the terrace by a curve that never exceeds a 4:1 grade.  Nevertheless, the wagon road is deeply eroded and the steepest segment has a severely washed out section with at least three “improved” work arounds with boulder border alignments.  This alignment rises (from 5140 to 5320) 180 feet in 0.4 miles.

The modern highway US 50 alignment to the west of this section is constructed on an even more dramatic curve, and through the construction of roadcuts and fill, ascends only 80 feet over a distance of 0.8 miles.

The braided pack trail contributing structure alignment of Site 3 is indicated by the “unimproved” (direct ascent and descent) wagon road grade which is inferred to date to 1853 (Gunnison Expedition) contributes to this significant historic property.  The overlying wagon road alignment, where detectable, is important in its own right and may be eligible to National Register under other themes and periods of significance.  The improved wagon road grade (“Salt Lake Wagon Road”) adjacent to the unimproved alignment, which may date to as early as the 1858 Loring Expedition and is illustrarted on Hayden 1877, GLO 1882 and Wheeler (1882?) maps is important in its own right and may be eligible to the National Register under other themes and periods of significance. 

Contributing Site 4 – Beaver Gulch and Windy Creek flats.  This segment of  “trail” alignment is detected ascending a steep flank of Beaver Gulch bisected by the US 50 roadcut (Horn 2005:5DT854.2).  The improved wagon road grade to the south of the trail is mapped on the USGS 7.5’ Dominguez and is still passable by automobiles.  The trail ascends 100 feet (from 5280 feet to 5380 feet) in 1/10^th of a mile, and like the other steep ascents, is severely gullied.  Once achieving the top of the southwesterly trending terrace (5380 feet), the alignment is detectable for nearly 1.75 miles where it rejoins the constructed Salt Lake Wagon Road grade with a gentle descent (at 5140 feet) of about 140 feet per mile.   Where the descent leaves the terrace into a broad lateral drainage of Windy Creek there are several alignments that fan out into the drainage bottom.  This braiding may be a legacy from livestock driveway use, multiple pack animal strings, early wagon use or all of these factors.

Thecontributing structure of braided pack trail alignment of Site 4, indicated by the “unimproved” (direct ascent and descent) wagon road which is inferred to date to 1853 (Gunnison Expedition) contributes to this significant historic property.  The overlying wagon road alignment, where detectable, is important in its own right and may be eligible to the National Register under other themes and periods of significance.  The improved wagon road grade (“Salt Lake Wagon Road”) which may date as early as the 1858 Loring Expedition and is illustrarted on Hayden 1877, GLO 1882 and Wheeler (1882?) maps, adjacent to the “unimproved” wagon road, is important in its own right and may be eligible to the National Register under other themes and periods of significance.   The current US 50 Highway grade, road cut, fill and disturbance which passes through the eastern portion of the segment does not contribute to the eligibility of the alignment.

Integrity of the Wells Gulch Trail segment Historic District. 

The landforms of the Wells Gulch site appears much as they did during the period of use (1829-1848). The most obvious change in the Wells Gulch trail segment landscape is the US 50 highway corridor, which uses the same topographic corridor as the pack trail. This contrast between subtle packtrail alignments and the impressive highway engineering is a striking example of the change in transportation and commerce modalities in the last 175 years.  Nevertheless the modern highway does not dominate this setting composed of even more massive landmarks, such as Grand Mesa, Uncompahgre Plateau and Gunnison River canyon.  As a matter of scale, the setting of the Wells Gulch trail segment appears much as it would have when mules loaded with 250 pound packs carrying items destined for trade with Ute tribes people or herds of horses and mules driven from California, destined for Missouri travelled this corridor nearly two centuries ago.  From many viewpoints along the alignment, the foreground passes in drainages or ridges that have little or no visible evidence of modern roadways, buildings or industrially altered landscapes. In contrast, there are other segments where modern intrusions are noticeable.  A number of minor unpaved roads are accessed from US 50 (seven roads intersect US 50 on the river side and  four roads on the Grand Mesa (northeast) side.

The vegetation of the landscape is much the same as in the second quarter of the 19^th Century.  Native species present then are present today, although in different proportions as a result of livestock grazing and introduction of exotic invasive species.  The invasion of cheat grass (Bromus tectorum) is not as easy to detect for the casual observer as the highway.  But the visual change created in the landscape is more obvious for the brief period in the spring when cheat grass greens up and then for the remainder of the summer when the straw colored cheat grass “cures out.”  Cheat grass does not directly compete with native species, but fills the interstices between the native plants.  The change in color and texture of the vegetation thereby is altered during the growing season. 

In line, form and color the Wells Gulch landscape is still evocative of the 1829-1848period of use. The eleven mile-long, half mile wide Wells Gulch historic district containing four identifiable segments reflecting pack trail structure exhibits the qualities of integrity of location, setting, feeling and association.

Location. Evidence that supports a pack trail and livestock driveway trace in the Wells Gulch trail segment is historical narrative and maps dating to between 1853 and 1882, which indicate that the corridor is in the landscape of the current US Highway 50 corridor as well as the absence of any traces outside of the broad valley paralleling and above the Gunnison River.  The location of abandoned traces of “improved” wheeled vehicle grades and cross-slope erosion remnants indicate that wagon travel starting in 1853 used previous, more ephemeral pack trail alignments around the head of “arroyos” draining laterally into the Gunnison River.

Setting.  The landforms and vegetation described by the earliest historical narrative descriptions are the same major features and landforms that are visible today (Grand Mesa, Uncompahgre Plateau, San Juan Mountains, Roan Cliffs and Dominguez Rim).  Landform, color and texture are indistinguishable from what would have been observed from the back of a mule or horse in 1829-1848.  Vegetation has been qualitatively altered by the introduction of non-native cheat grass (Bromus tectorum).  Cheat grass alters the vegetation color to a bright green for about two weeks in the spring and to a straw colored mat when it cures out in summer. Cheat grass also alters the fire cycle and is a major factor in extirpation of native vegetation.

Association.  The Wells Gulch trail segment is associated with the historic use of the “North Branch” of the Old Spanish Trail and is a candidate for a “retracement” route.  This segment is particularly associated with “Fort Robidoux” just beyond the southern terminus of this segment.  Fort Robidoux is documented to have been an important site in the Ute Indian trade “franchise” of Antoine Robidoux, and is connected to Fort Uncompahgre, a Robidoux trading post on the northern Ute frontier from circa 1830 until 1844.  Both trading posts were abandoned as a result of changes in Ute participation in the Mexican trading system.  The Wells Gulch trail segment would have been the major travel way linking the two Robidoux trading posts.

Feeling.  Even though the Wells Gulch trail segment is almost entirely within view and earshot of a busy US highway, the overall landscape retains the general character of the historic landscape through which the livestock drive and Indian traders passed. Cresting any hill or turning beyond any curve all this segment will afford an experience of leaving the “modern world” behind as if stepping back in time.

As the segments on the Old Spanish Trail were not a purposeful construction the aspects of design, materials, and workmanship are not relevant for the Wells Gulch trail segment.

The Wells Gulch trail alignment is at a large geographic scale and follows a valley offset on the northeast side of the Gunnison River and is consistent with river valley corridors as would be expected for the lay-out of pack trails and livestock driveways during the second quarter of the 19^th Century.  The Wells Gulch segment reflects long distance travel way through the “wilderness.” The Wells Gulch route segment is primarily composed of the soil components that have formed into a distinct trace of an early travel route. There is no evidence of imported materials in the use or construction of the trail.  The materials that the “arrieros” (muleteers) used and worked were those materials occurring naturally in the environment. Journeyman mule and horse packers and drovers selected the course of the route within the constraints of the available technology and knowledge of geographic conditions of the times. The route of the alignments in the corridor reflects the daily requirements of water, forage and rest spots for the livestock and food, fuel and hazards reduction (river crossings and highwaymen) of the “voyageurs.”

Summary of District.  The ad hoc alignments detected which are inferred to be in the location of pack trails in use from 1829-1848 are only detectable because they have created erosion channels once vegetation was disturbed in the highly erodible sediments.  If not for subsequent disturbance from wagon road, automobile and telegraph/telephone pole lines obliterating the pack trail, the pack animal alignments might still be detectable  along this entire route in these highly erodible soils which, as Beckwith reported… when wet, caused the horses and mules to sink down to their fetlocks {Beckwith 1855:60).  Taken as a whole the district constitutes a trail related historic landscape which contributes to the National Register of Historic Places.

Past and Current Impacts and Immediate Threats

The most obvious change in the Wells Gulch trail segment landscape is the US 50 highway corridor.  There are also a number of minor unpaved roads that are accessed from US 50 (seven roads intersect US 50 on the River side and  four roads on the Grand Mesa (northeast) side.  Since the entire highway right-of-way is on Public Lands, any new construction would be subject to BLM permission

Probably the biggest threat to the integrity of the site is catastrophic wildfire.  While the native vegetation is not prone to large area and intense wildfire, the invasion of cheat grass alters the fire cycle.  Before cheatgrass a single dry lightning strike in the desert scrub would be unlikely to spread.  With cheatgrass a single lightening strike can produce a range fire of tens of thousands of acres. 

The southeast boundary of the Wells Gulch trail segment is formed by a metal lattice tower high voltage power transmission line.  This line parallels the northeast side of the trail segment in the mid-distance.   Often existing powerline alignments form the justification to establish a powerline and utility right-of-way. The  additon of powerlines would impact the setting of the trail segment.

There are several communications facilities in the Wells Gulch trail segment vicinity.  Fiber optic cable has been installed adjacent to the US 50 right-of-way, further expanding the disturbance zone.  Additonal construction of buried utilities within existing disturbances would further intrude on native vegetation, undisturbed soils and limit the spread of invasive species.  A communications site built on a prominence would alter the setting of  the southeast of the Wells Gulch trail segment. 

There are several tanks and reservoirs constructed in the uplands above the Wells Gulch trail segment.  Any alteration or maintenance of these water developments or diversions of drainage patterns on the watersheds in which Wells Gulch is located could impact the Wells Gulch setting, landscape or historic structures.

Noise and air quality in the Wells Gulch trail segment are changed from the historic condition primarily from the traffic on US 50.  There are short sections of the historic alignments that are outside of view of the highway.  Any change in highway alignments that impinged on these “buffered” sections might be considered an adverse impact even if within existing rights-of way.  Likewise certain sections of the alignment are buffered from noise and air quality of motorized traffic.  Noise and diesel combustion smells are quite variable with wind and moisture conditions, but new technologies are under development that might reduce these effects. 

Previous investigations

The Wells Gulch trail segment as defined here can be placed as a “retracement route” of the “North Branch” or “Mountain Branch” route of the Old Spanish National Historic Trail (Hill 1921, Kessler 1998, Nelson 2003, Hafen & Hafen 1993, Auerbach 1941).  Jon Horn of Alpine Archaeological Research has conducted archeological investigations and historical research (2005, 2010) on this section of the North Branch.  Previous archeological investigations conducted by Crum (1991), Hand (1996, 2000) and O’Neil and Baker (1992) identify  linear features as “The North Branch of the Old Spanish Trail or the Salt Lake Wagon Road.”  Existing records research was conducted for this project in the Bureau of Land Management, Uncompahgre Field Office (Montrose, Colorado) through the efforts of Carol Patterson, archeologist.  Further records research was undertaken at the Grand Junction Field Office of the BLM accessing the General Land Office (GLO) Survey Plats, Master Title Plats (MTPs) and Historical Indices (HIs).  Additionally on the ground and historical research assistance was provided by Ms. Vicki Felmlee and Ms. Sonny Shelton of the North Branch Chapter of the Old Spanish Trail Association.

Intact, substantially unaltered archeological features, structures and objects dating to the 1829-1848 period of significance have not been substantiated on the Wells Gulch trail segment, nor elsewhere on the designated Old Spanish National Historic Trail. Significance based on intact buildings, structures and objects that can be directly tied to the period 1829-1848 cannot be verified on the Wells Gulch segment or elsewhere on the Old Spanish National Historic Trail.  Locating and identifying archeological evidence of an unaltered pack trail from 1848 with current available theory and technology is extremely unlikely.  Because of the absence of any artifacts so far reported that date to the period of significance (1829-1848) of the commercial route between New Mexico and California, the use of the landscape in the period can only be inferred from historical records.  Unfortunately even the remains of Fort Uncompahgre (or Robidoux), which by Beckwith’s account in 1853 was