Abandoned mines in Chaffee County, Colorado

1. Mine openings

   shafts, adits, air shafts, portals and vertical openings: the ways into underground workings
   430 28.9%
2. Prospect pits and trenches

   shallow exploration diggings that never became a mine
   932 62.6%
3. Mines and surface workings

   labelled mines, open pits, strip mines, placer and hydraulic workings
   45 3.0%
4. Quarries, gravel and borrow pits

   construction-material and industrial-mineral extraction
   79 5.3%
5. Dumps, tailings, spoil and gob

   what mining left above ground
   4 0.3%

A name is the label printed beside the symbol on the map. "First mapped" is the earliest topographic edition that shows the symbol, which bounds the feature's age from above; it is not the date it was worked. Unnamed features (most prospect pits, adits and shafts carry no label) are in the counts above but not this list.

Problem types carry OSMRE's priority prefix: P1 and P2 are threats to health, safety and property, P3 is environmental. A problem area is a cluster of problems reclaimed as one project; several rows can share one location.

1. 4250 Impactor #74

   Surface metal/non-metal · Pelino Inc. · MSHA ID 0504880
   Abandoned 2008-09-17
2. 6203 JCIn Screen #75

   Surface metal/non-metal · Pelino Inc. · MSHA ID 0504879
   Abandoned 2008-03-10
3. Bender

   Surface metal/non-metal · Colorado Department Of Highways · MSHA ID 0503400
   Abandoned 1980-01-03
4. Crusher # 3

   Surface metal/non-metal · Black Canyon Aggregate Inc · MSHA ID 0504902
   Abandoned 2010-07-12
5. Deluca Pit

   Surface metal/non-metal · Chaffee County · MSHA ID 0503162
   Abandoned 1982-08-12
6. Falcon Mine

   Underground metal/non-metal · Falcon Mines Inc · MSHA ID 0503101
   Abandoned 1981-04-09
7. Fish Hatchery Pit

   Surface metal/non-metal · Chaffee County · MSHA ID 0503164
   Abandoned 1982-08-12
8. Hills Pit

   Surface metal/non-metal · Chaffee County · MSHA ID 0503163
   Abandoned 1982-08-12
9. J Portable Track Mounted Jaw #69

   Surface metal/non-metal · Pelino Inc · MSHA ID 0504846
   Abandoned 2008-03-18
10. Jim Treat Pit

    Surface metal/non-metal · Salida Sand & Gravel Inc · MSHA ID 0503814
    Abandoned 1993-02-22
11. KAESS PIT NO 1

    Surface metal/non-metal · Kaess Contracting Inc · MSHA ID 0504622
    Abandoned 2008-02-04
12. Keystone Adit

    Underground metal/non-metal · Anaconda Minerals Company · MSHA ID 0503727
    Abandoned 1981-09-14
13. Lily Mine Portable

    Surface metal/non-metal · U S Soil · MSHA ID 0504405
    Abandoned 1995-09-12
14. Lily Mine/Portable Crusher

    Surface metal/non-metal · Kiewit Western Company · MSHA ID 0504907
    Abandoned 2009-01-28
15. Longfellow Claim

    Surface metal/non-metal · R D H Company · MSHA ID 0503182
    Abandoned 1980-06-23
16. Mary Murphy Mine

    Underground metal/non-metal · American International Mining Company Inc · MSHA ID 0503711
    Abandoned 1982-06-24
17. Monarch Mill

    Surface metal/non-metal · QUIKRETE COMPANIES · MSHA ID 0504799
    Abandoned 2015-10-01
18. Mound Mine

    Underground metal/non-metal · Big Basin Mining Corp · MSHA ID 0502385
    Abandoned 1980-04-09
19. Nancy Cleo

    Underground metal/non-metal · Di Camillo Brothers Mining Company · MSHA ID 0500737
    Abandoned 1985-04-23
20. Nancy Cleo

    Surface metal/non-metal · Stewart Mines Inc · MSHA ID 0502943
    Abandoned 1976-11-05
21. Pioneer Mine

    Surface metal/non-metal · Pioneer Mines · MSHA ID 0503080
    Abandoned 1979-01-11
22. Plant #3

    Surface metal/non-metal · Lowry Contracting Inc · MSHA ID 0504424
    Abandoned 1991-08-12
23. Portable Plant

    Surface metal/non-metal · Pridemore Construction Inc · MSHA ID 0504468
    Abandoned 1993-08-24
24. Portable Plant #1

    Surface metal/non-metal · Lowry Contracting Inc · MSHA ID 0504501
    Abandoned 1993-08-23
25. PORTABLE PLANT #1

    Surface metal/non-metal · Hi Valley Crushing, Inc. · MSHA ID 0504422
    Abandoned 2013-03-08
26. Red Deer Pit

    Surface metal/non-metal · Chaffee County, A Political Sub/State of Co · MSHA ID 0504493
    Abandoned 2003-08-26
27. Salida Pit

    Surface metal/non-metal · Chaffee County, A Political Sub/State of Co · MSHA ID 0504503
    Abandoned 2003-08-26
28. Salida Plant

    Facility metal/non-metal · Colorado Lime Company · MSHA ID 0502798
    Abandoned 2019-06-14
29. State Land Board

    Surface metal/non-metal · Colorado Department Of Highways · MSHA ID 0503409
    Abandoned 1982-08-12
30. Stewart Mines

    Surface metal/non-metal · American Mill Inc · MSHA ID 0503076
    Abandoned 1979-01-17
31. Top Of The World Project

    Surface metal/non-metal · Xerarc Resources Inc · MSHA ID 0504351
    Abandoned 1989-07-28
32. Ulrich Pit Hard Rock #1

    Surface metal/non-metal · Hard Rock Paving & Redi-Mix Inc · MSHA ID 0500991
    Abandoned 1985-04-23
33. Yankee Blade #3 Shaft

    Underground metal/non-metal · Bemmco · MSHA ID 0503552
    Abandoned 1985-09-24

Status and date are as reported to MSHA by the operator. Each mine's own page carries its accident, citation and inspection record.

• San Juan County 3,913
• Lake County 3,672
• Gunnison County 2,703
• Saguache County 2,319
• San Miguel County 2,242
• Gilpin County 2,148
• Montrose County 2,077
• Custer County 2,062
• Clear Creek County 1,996
• Park County 1,624
• Summit County 1,449
• Boulder County 1,083

1. USGS, Consolidated Prospect- and Mine-Related Features from 7.5- and 15-Minute Topographic Quadrangle Maps of the United States (USMIN)
   597,612 point and area features digitized from about 106,350 historical topographic maps published 1886–2006; public domain (CC0). A feature is a map symbol, not a field-verified site, and the map does not say whether it was still worked.
2. USGS Fact Sheet 2025–3003, The Abandoned Mine Inventory of the United States
   States that as of 2025 there is no comprehensive national inventory of abandoned mine features, and that the detailed national database now being built will not be published.
3. OSMRE, Abandoned Mine Land Inventory System (e-AMLIS), public Problems layer
   One row per abandoned mine land problem in a problem area, with its type, funding program and reclamation status; mostly coal mined before the 1977 Surface Mining Control and Reclamation Act. Coordinates are the problem area's.
4. MSHA, Mines dataset (Mine Data Retrieval System)
   Every mine registered with MSHA since the 1970s; a mine reads Abandoned or Abandoned and Sealed when its operator reported that status. Refreshed weekly.
5. US Census Bureau, 2023 cartographic county boundaries (1:500,000)
   Each feature's county is assigned by its coordinates against these boundaries, not copied from the source file.
6. GAO-20-238, Abandoned Hardrock Mines (March 2020)
   Federal agencies had identified at least 140,000 abandoned hardrock mine features on federal land and estimated more than 390,000 more not yet captured in their databases.
7. Abandoned Hardrock Mine Reclamation (AHMR) Program, US Department of the Interior
   The program the USGS inventory is compiled for. Its appropriations and the 674,000 field-confirmed feature count on this page were provided by the program manager, Office of Environmental Policy and Compliance, and are cited with permission (2026-09-08).
8. IMCC-NAAMLP Hardrock AML Report
   Page 48 carries the two figures this page leans on: USGS estimates 633,181 of the 725,690 mine features it recorded from historic topographic maps, 87 percent, are hardrock; and state and federal agencies have submitted more than 724,000 AML features to the national database being built, already more than the historic maps hold. Year-by-year AHMR funding is on page 35.