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Working with Section 106 ACHP
Case Digest Spring
2004 Wyoming: Development of
the Lander Trail, Pinedale
Wyoming:
Development of the Lander Trail, Pinedale
Agency: Bureau of Land
Management
During the era
of Westward Expansion, American pioneers used the Lander Trail as
a cutoff from the Oregon Trail to the California gold fields. As
the first Government-built wagon road in the West, the trail is
listed in the National Register of Historic Places and still bears
wagon wheel ruts and tree carvings left by the early pioneers.
The Bureau of
Land Management is considering issuing a permit to two oil and gas
companies to drill wells along the Lander Trail near Pinedale, Wyoming.
The proposed wells would intrude upon the visual and aural integrity
of the historic trail.
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The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) is considering issuing a permit to
two oil and gas companies to drill 36 wells near Pinedale, Wyoming. The
project would be within the setting of the Lander Trail, which is a variant
of the Oregon and California National Historic Trails and listed in the
National Register of Historic Places.
Lander Trail with Oregon trail marker, Pinedale,
Wyoming (photo courtesy of Kierson Crume, Bureau of Land Management)
The construction and existence of the proposed wells would intrude on
the visual and aural integrity of the historic trail.
In June 2003, the Wyoming State Historic Preservation Officer (SHPO)
requested that the ACHP become involved in the case. Under Section 106
of the National Historic Preservation Act, the ACHP notified BLM and the
Secretary of the Interior the following month that it would participate
in consultation on the project.
Other stakeholders in the project include the SHPO, National Park Service
Long Distance Trails Office, Oregon-California Trails Association, Ultra
Resources, Inc., and Shell Rocky Mountain LLC.
BLM drafted a Programmatic Agreement that addresses the effects of the
proposed development on the Lander Trail. The ACHP reviewed the draft
agreement and submitted comments to BLM on the draft. The ACHP is currently
waiting for a revised draft agreement.
The ACHP recommends that interpretive signs be provided for the trail;
that a reclamation plan be developed that ensures that the landscape is
returned to its current appearance when the facility is removed in the
future; and that the terrain should be used to obscure the wells from
the trail.
Staff contact: Alan
Stanfill
Updated
June 1, 2004
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