Request a Site or Document Number

If you are working with an agency that has a preexisting data agreement with our preservation office, please defer to the information outlined in your agreement about requesting numbers. Otherwise, please ensure that the agency or land owner you are working with consents to have numbers requested on their behalf prior to contacting our office.

Step 1: Contact our office

Step 2: What information do I need to provide?

For site numbers, please let us know,

  • The county where the site is located
  • Is the site a linear resource (e.g. a railroad, highway or ditch)?
  • If it is a linear resource, does it have a name and are you recording the whole resource or just a segment?

In an effort to curate more accurate site data, we ask that you submit GIS shapefiles when requesting site numbers. Please submit this data using the GIS templates from our office, which are found on the Submitting Your Data To Preservation Programs page. Site boundaries do not have to be final, but should be mostly accurate. This data will be curated as “pending” until such time as the final documentation is received and processed into our system. Submitting shapefiles for number requests is not mandatory at this time, however, the pending data provides both staff and researchers with a more accurate view of real time site recording activities in the state.

Please Note

Do not assign a new site number to previously recorded sites with existing site numbers.  Contact our staff to determine the correct site number if a structure has been moved or if new construction or information connects two previously separate properties.

For Document IDs, please let us know,

  • The county(ies) where the work took place.
  • Who the lead agency is.
  • If you need a positive (sites found) or negative (no sites found) number.
  • The working title of the report and if applicable, the lead agency project number.

Explaining site numbers

All recorded cultural resources receive a Smithsonian number.  This is a trinomial number with a state numerical designation (Colorado is #5), a two letter designation for the county (see table below) and a sequential number for the resource.  For example, the first recorded site in Rio Blanco county is 5RB.1.

Explaining Document IDs

All cultural resource reports received by our office receive a Document ID. This is a three part identification system with a two letter county identifier (see table below), a two or three letter lead agency identifier, and an R (positive results) or NR (negative results) identifier plus a sequence number. For example, a positive survey done for the Forest Service conducted in Garfield County might have a document ID as follows, GF.FS.R45. A historic structure assessment for a building in Clear Creek county funded by the State Historical Fund, might have the following number, CC.SHF.R3.

AM Adams DL Dolores KC Kit Carson PL Phillips
AL Alamosa DT Delta LP La Plata PT Pitkin
AH Arapahoe DV Denver LK Lake PW Prowers
AA Archuleta EA Eagle LR Larimer PE Pueblo
BA Baca EP El Paso LA Las Animas RB Rio Blanco
BN Bent EL Elbert LN Lincoln RN Rio Grande
BL Boulder FN Fremont LO Logan RT Routt
BF Broomfield GF Garfield ME Mesa SH Saguache
CF Chaffee GL Gilpin ML Mineral SA San Juan
CH Cheyenne GA Grand MF Moffat SM San Miguel
CC Clear Creek GN Gunnison MT Montezuma SW Sedgwick
CN Conejos HN Hinsdale MN Montrose ST Summit
CT Costilla HF Huerfano MR Morgan TL Teller
CW Crowley JA Jackson OT Otero WN Washington
CR Custer JF Jefferson OR Ouray WL Weld
DA Douglas KW Kiowa PA Park YM Yuma