Abandoned mines in Ouray County, Colorado

1. Mine openings

   shafts, adits, air shafts, portals and vertical openings: the ways into underground workings
   459 57.6%
2. Prospect pits and trenches

   shallow exploration diggings that never became a mine
   310 38.9%
3. Mines and surface workings

   labelled mines, open pits, strip mines, placer and hydraulic workings
   8 1.0%
4. Quarries, gravel and borrow pits

   construction-material and industrial-mineral extraction
   4 0.5%
5. Dumps, tailings, spoil and gob

   what mining left above ground
   10 1.3%
6. Mills, tipples and facilities

   processing plants and hazardous structures
   2 0.3%
7. Other reclamation problems

   highwalls, subsidence, polluted or clogged water, fires, slides and gases in OSMRE's inventory
   4 0.5%

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. ABBOTT PIT

   Surface metal/non-metal · Abbott Ready Mix Inc · MSHA ID 0502626
   Abandoned 2004-07-19
2. Bachelor-Syracuse

   Underground metal/non-metal · Camp Bird Colorado Inc · MSHA ID 0502501
   Abandoned 1985-07-22
3. Bay City Crushing

   Surface metal/non-metal · Independant Reliable Services, Inc. · MSHA ID 0504766
   Abandoned 2009-06-22
4. Bimetallist

   Underground metal/non-metal · Minerals Inc · MSHA ID 0503893
   Abandoned 1984-12-11
5. Black Girl

   Underground metal/non-metal · Rajah Ventures Ltd · MSHA ID 0503876
   Abandoned 1985-03-13
6. Blm Pit

   Surface metal/non-metal · Burnett Construction Company · MSHA ID 0503480
   Abandoned 1980-04-29
7. Bridal Veil Pit

   Surface metal/non-metal · Bridal Veil Construction, LLC · MSHA ID 0504767
   Abandoned 2005-09-23
8. Brooklyn Mine

   Underground metal/non-metal · Brooklyn Mining Company · MSHA ID 0502944
   Abandoned 1985-08-16
9. Bureau Of Reclamation

   Surface metal/non-metal · Colorado Department Of Highways · MSHA ID 0503406
   Abandoned 1979-10-09
10. Camp Bird Mine

    Underground metal/non-metal · Royal Camp Bird Inc · MSHA ID 0500437
    Abandoned 1991-08-01
11. Camp Bird Mine

    Underground metal/non-metal · Caldera Mineral Resources, LLC · MSHA ID 0504947
    Abandoned 2014-08-11
12. Dallas Creek Project

    Surface metal/non-metal · Granite Construction Company · MSHA ID 0503545
    Abandoned 1986-10-10
13. Dallas Divide Pit

    Surface metal/non-metal · C E Mills Construction Company Inc · MSHA ID 0503175
    Abandoned 1979-06-13
14. Eldorado

    Underground metal/non-metal · Eldorado Pilot Mining Corp · MSHA ID 0504144
    Abandoned 1988-01-12
15. Gold Hill Mining Project

    Underground metal/non-metal · Tomcat Mining Corporation · MSHA ID 0505019
    Abandoned 2013-11-29
16. GRIZZLY BEAR MINE

    Underground metal/non-metal · Zmk Mine Construction Inc · MSHA ID 0503608
    Abandoned 2000-02-14
17. Hancock

    Underground metal/non-metal · John Crim · MSHA ID 0502768
    Abandoned 1979-01-08
18. IDARADO MINE

    Underground metal/non-metal · Idarado Mining Company · MSHA ID 0500414
    Abandoned 2000-02-14
19. Liberty

    Underground metal/non-metal · The Mining Company, Inc. · MSHA ID 0504893
    Abandoned 2018-10-12
20. Lower Mountain Top

    Underground metal/non-metal · St Sophia Holding Ltd · MSHA ID 0504984
    Abandoned 2012-09-11
21. Mickey Breen

    Underground metal/non-metal · Don Nordlander Mining Company · MSHA ID 0502982
    Abandoned 1980-01-04
22. Mountain Monarch Mine

    Underground metal/non-metal · Don Nordlander Mining Company · MSHA ID 0503074
    Abandoned 1981-12-23
23. Mountain Top Mine

    Underground metal/non-metal · Silver Eagle Mining Company · MSHA ID 0503588
    Abandoned 1981-03-18
24. Mountain Top Mine

    Underground metal/non-metal · Silver Eagle Mining Company · MSHA ID 0503602
    Abandoned 1985-04-23
25. MOUNTAIN TOP MINE

    Underground metal/non-metal · M G M-Maple Grove Mill/Mine · MSHA ID 0504535
    Abandoned 1997-01-27
26. Noble Pit

    Surface metal/non-metal · Mountain Gravel & Construction Company · MSHA ID 0503172
    Abandoned 1979-03-26
27. Ouray County Gravel Pit

    Surface metal/non-metal · County Of Ouray Colorado · MSHA ID 0504036
    Abandoned 1991-09-23
28. Ouray County Portable Screening Plant

    Surface metal/non-metal · Ouray County · MSHA ID 0504806
    Abandoned 2005-12-16
29. Portable Screen

    Surface metal/non-metal · City of Ouray · MSHA ID 0504805
    Abandoned 2005-09-20
30. RIDGEWAY PIT

    Surface metal/non-metal · R N G Contracting Inc · MSHA ID 0504528
    Abandoned 1999-06-04
31. Ridgway Pit

    Surface metal/non-metal · Frontier Sand & Gravel Co · MSHA ID 0503088
    Abandoned 1978-05-04
32. Ridgway Pit

    Surface metal/non-metal · C & C Sand & Gravel Co · MSHA ID 0503089
    Abandoned 1978-05-04
33. Ruby Mine Trust

    Underground metal/non-metal · 42 MWT Mining Company LLC · MSHA ID 0503208
    Abandoned 2019-09-10
34. Silver Link

    Underground metal/non-metal · 1848 Coporation · MSHA ID 0503681
    Abandoned 1983-09-20
35. The Mountain Top

    Underground metal/non-metal · The Mining Company Inc. · MSHA ID 0504908
    Abandoned 2008-08-11
36. Upper Mountain Top Mine

    Underground metal/non-metal · The Mining Company · MSHA ID 0504980
    Abandoned 2014-08-11
37. Wanakah Mine

    Underground metal/non-metal · American Gold Resources Corp · MSHA ID 0504219
    Abandoned 1987-08-13

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
• Chaffee County 1,486
• Summit County 1,449

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.