The soil is too thin to be used for large-scale agriculture. The hunting is limited. Pinon nuts do not produce every year. There is no permanent source of water on the plateau but there are permanent springs in Mauv Saddle and off the plateau on the south on the esplanade. Snow melt would have been a source of water in the winter and early spring.
Many indications point to seasonal habitation.
There are also habitation sites immediately off the plateau in Deer, Tapeats, Galloway, Shinumo, and White Canyons indicating that the people lived on top of the plateau during the summer months and lower down during the winter. Much of the paper was devoted to comparing Powell Plateau to other sites in the canyon. This survey was done over a 6-day period in the fall of 1978. They flew over and back by helicopter. We should be so lucky.