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Abandoned mines › Colorado
Abandoned mine inventory

Abandoned mines in Montezuma County, Colorado

Montezuma County, Colorado has 80 mine and prospect features on USGS topographic maps published 1897–1994, including 12 mine openings (shafts, adits and air shafts) and 8 prospect pits; 5 of the features carry a name on the map. OSMRE's abandoned mine land inventory lists 35 problems in the county, 7 of them not yet reclaimed. MSHA's register carries 29 mines in the county with status Abandoned or Abandoned and Sealed.

Every mine and prospect feature the USGS digitized from historical topographic maps covering Montezuma County, every OSMRE abandoned mine land problem in the county, and every MSHA-registered mine here with status Abandoned. Named features are listed below; unnamed ones are counted by type. Locations are deliberately not shown: this page says what abandoned workings are in the county, not where to find them. They are dangerous and should not be entered.

Mapped mine features (USGS)
80
Mine openings
12
OSMRE problems unreclaimed
7
MSHA mines marked abandoned
29
5 features carry a name8 prospect pits22 quadrangle maps, published 1897–1994 35 OSMRE problems, 28 reclaimed 0 MSHA mines abandoned and sealed
What the features are
  1. Mine openings
    shafts, adits, air shafts, portals and vertical openings: the ways into underground workings
    29 25.2%
  2. Prospect pits and trenches
    shallow exploration diggings that never became a mine
    8 7.0%
  3. Mines and surface workings
    labelled mines, open pits, strip mines, placer and hydraulic workings
    8 7.0%
  4. Quarries, gravel and borrow pits
    construction-material and industrial-mineral extraction
    52 45.2%
  5. Dumps, tailings, spoil and gob
    what mining left above ground
    2 1.7%
  6. Other reclamation problems
    highwalls, subsidence, polluted or clogged water, fires, slides and gases in OSMRE's inventory
    16 13.9%
Named features on the maps5 named · from the USGS compilation
Name on map Feature
Gold Dollar Mine Adit
Mesa Verde Mine Mine Shaft
Red Arrow Mine Adit
Thunder Mine Adit
Todd Mine Open Pit Mine

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.

OSMRE abandoned mine land problems35 on inventory
Problem area Problem Status
Black Ace - 02/53-01 P2 Portals Reclamation Pending
Cortez/hopper - 13/34-01 P2 Portals Reclamation Completed
Crummet - 19/43-01 P2 Portals Reclamation Completed
Dolores - 19/46-01 P2 Portals Reclamation Completed
Freeman Mine - 42/33-01 P1 Underground Mine Fires Reclamation Completed
Freeman Mine - 42/33-01 P2 Underground Mine Fires Reclamation Completed
Mancos #1 - 43/34-01 P1 Underground Mine Fires Reclamation Completed
Mancos #1 - 43/34-01 P2 Underground Mine Fires Reclamation Completed
Mancos #2/mancos Hill - 45/35-01 P1 Underground Mine Fires Reclamation Completed
Mancos #2/mancos Hill - 45/35-01 P2 Portals Reclamation Completed
Mancos #2/mancos Hill - 45/35-01 P2 Underground Mine Fires Reclamation Completed
Mancos #2/mancos Hill - 45/35-01 P3 Mine Opening Reclamation Completed
Mcelmo/kelly - 14/34-01 P1 Portals Reclamation Completed
Mcelmo/kelly - 14/34-01 P1 Subsidence Reclamation Completed
Mcelmo/kelly - 14/34-01 P1 Underground Mine Fires Reclamation Pending
Mcelmo/kelly - 14/34-01 P2 Portals Reclamation Completed
Montezuma - Non-coal-county-wide P1 Portals In Reclamation
Montezuma - Non-coal-county-wide P1 Portals Reclamation Completed
Montezuma - Non-coal-county-wide P1 Vertical Openings Reclamation Completed
Montezuma - Non-coal-county-wide P1 Vertical Openings Reclamation Completed
Montezuma County - Coal - Co-wide P3 Mine Opening Reclamation Pending
Montezuma/moffit-carlile - 19/36-01 P2 Portals Reclamation Completed
Montezuma/moffit-carlile - 19/36-01 P3 Gobs Reclamation Pending
Phil's World Project - Noi P1 Portals Reclamation Completed
Pinos Altos - 43/34-02 P1 Underground Mine Fires Reclamation Completed
Pinos Altos - 43/34-02 P2 Underground Mine Fires Reclamation Completed
Pinos Altos - 43/34-02 P3 Mine Opening Reclamation Completed
Sanford - 23/43-01 P2 Portals Reclamation Completed
Simon Draw - 20/42-01 P2 Portals Reclamation Completed
State Lands/school Sect - 44/35-01 P1 Underground Mine Fires Reclamation Completed
State Lands/school Sect - 44/35-01 P1 Underground Mine Fires In Reclamation
State Lands/school Sect - 44/35-01 P2 Underground Mine Fires Reclamation Completed
Towaoc Mine P2 Portals Reclamation Completed
Wagner - 19/43-02 P2 Portals Reclamation Completed
Wagner - 19/43-02 P3 Gobs Reclamation Pending

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.

MSHA-registered mines with status Abandoned29 on register
  1. Animas Pit
    Surface metal/non-metal · Nielsons Inc · MSHA ID 0502396
    Abandoned
  2. Borrow Area B
    Surface metal/non-metal · U S Bureau Of Reclamation · MSHA ID 0504006
    Abandoned
  3. Brownsville
    Underground metal/non-metal · Ed Crawford · MSHA ID 0500587
    Abandoned
  4. CATHEY CANYON PIT
    Surface metal/non-metal · Nielsons Inc · MSHA ID 0504718
    Abandoned
  5. Crusher #3
    Surface metal/non-metal · Mountain Gravel & Construction Company · MSHA ID 0504547
    Abandoned
  6. CURSHER UNIT #2
    Surface metal/non-metal · Mountain Gravel · MSHA ID 0504037
    Abandoned
  7. Dolores Pit
    Surface metal/non-metal · Nielsons Inc · MSHA ID 0503819
    Abandoned
  8. El Jay Crusher
    Surface metal/non-metal · McStone Aggregates LLC · MSHA ID 0504128
    Abandoned
  9. El Jay Double Cone #1
    Surface metal/non-metal · Nielsons Skanska Inc · MSHA ID 0503135
    Abandoned
  10. El Jay Double Cone #2
    Surface metal/non-metal · Skanska USA Civil West RMD · MSHA ID 0501016
    Abandoned
  11. El-Jay 1274 Plant # 15-5
    Surface metal/non-metal · Four States Aggregates LLC · MSHA ID 0504813
    Abandoned
  12. FCM Rental Crusher
    Surface metal/non-metal · Four Corners Materials · MSHA ID 0504119
    Abandoned
  13. Lost Canyon Pit
    Surface metal/non-metal · Randolph Backhoe & Trucking · MSHA ID 0504125
    Abandoned
  14. Mancos Valley Gravel
    Surface metal/non-metal · Mancos Valley Gravel · MSHA ID 0504236
    Abandoned
  15. Nordberg Assembly
    Surface metal/non-metal · Skanska USA Civil West RMD · MSHA ID 0504867
    Abandoned
  16. Outwest Mine & Mill
    Underground metal/non-metal · Mancos Mining Company · MSHA ID 0503721
    Abandoned
  17. Plant #1
    Surface metal/non-metal · Emco Aggregates Inc · MSHA ID 0504120
    Abandoned
  18. Plant #2
    Surface metal/non-metal · Stone Sand & Gravel, LLC · MSHA ID 0504871
    Abandoned
  19. Portable Crusher No. 1
    Surface metal/non-metal · Mountain Stone Inc · MSHA ID 0504804
    Abandoned
  20. Portable Deck Screen
    Surface metal/non-metal · Four Corners Materials · MSHA ID 0504937
    Abandoned
  21. PORTABLE GRIZZLY #1
    Surface metal/non-metal · Mountain Stone Inc · MSHA ID 0504555
    Abandoned
  22. Primary-Purgatory
    Surface metal/non-metal · Nielsons Inc · MSHA ID 0504466
    Abandoned
  23. Red Arrow
    Underground metal/non-metal · Red Arrow Gold Corporation · MSHA ID 0504228
    Abandoned
  24. RS Crushing
    Surface metal/non-metal · RS Crushing · MSHA ID 0505104
    Abandoned
  25. THUNDER BIRD GRIZZLY
    Surface metal/non-metal · Nielsons Inc · MSHA ID 0504626
    Abandoned
  26. Thunderbird Wash Plant/Eagle Brand Sand
    Surface metal/non-metal · Stone Sand & Gravel, LLC · MSHA ID 0504763
    Abandoned
  27. Wash Plant-Portable Unit #3
    Surface metal/non-metal · Mountain Gravel & Construction Company · MSHA ID 0504443
    Abandoned
  28. Weeminuche Const. Auth.-B
    Surface metal/non-metal · Weeminuche Construction Authority · MSHA ID 0504749
    Abandoned
  29. WEEMINUCHE CONST. AUTHORITY
    Surface metal/non-metal · Weeminuche Construction Authority · MSHA ID 0504620
    Abandoned

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

By source vocabularythe publishers' own terms
Feature type Features
Gravel Pit 28
Gravel Pit 21
P2 Portals 11
Adit 10
Prospect Pit 8
P1 Underground Mine Fires 7
Open Pit Mine 7
P2 Underground Mine Fires 5
P1 Portals 4
P3 Mine Opening 3
P3 Gobs 2
P1 Vertical Openings 2
Quarry 2
Mine Shaft 2
Placer Mine 1
P1 Subsidence 1
Quarry 1
Other counties in ColoradoAll counties →
How to read these numbers

A USGS feature is a symbol on a historical topographic map, there when the map was surveyed; it may since have been sealed, reclaimed, built over or reopened as a working mine, and the map does not say which. An OSMRE row is a problem the abandoned mine land program tracks, not a mine. An MSHA mine is a registered operation whose operator reported abandonment, a record that starts in the 1970s. The three overlap and are never added together. The county is assigned from each feature's coordinates against the Census 2023 county boundaries. The full method is on the national page.

Sources
  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.