Mining Incidents
Search Operators Mines Alerts Research Controllers Fatalgrams About
Countries
Peru Chile
English Español
Abandoned mines › Iowa
Abandoned mine inventory

Abandoned mines in Clayton County, Iowa

Clayton County, Iowa has 95 mine and prospect features on USGS topographic maps published 1957–1983, including 3 mine openings (shafts, adits and air shafts). MSHA's register carries 38 mines in the county with status Abandoned or Abandoned and Sealed.

Every mine and prospect feature the USGS digitized from historical topographic maps covering Clayton 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)
95
Mine openings
3
OSMRE problems unreclaimed
0
MSHA mines marked abandoned
38
0 features carry a name0 prospect pits17 quadrangle maps, published 1957–1983 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
    3 3.2%
  2. Mines and surface workings
    labelled mines, open pits, strip mines, placer and hydraulic workings
    2 2.1%
  3. Quarries, gravel and borrow pits
    construction-material and industrial-mineral extraction
    90 94.7%
MSHA-registered mines with status Abandoned38 on register
  1. (Johnson) St Olaf Quarry
    Surface metal/non-metal · Roverud Construction Inc · MSHA ID 1301939
    Abandoned
  2. Andregg Quarry
    Surface metal/non-metal · Kuhlman Construction Company · MSHA ID 1300078
    Abandoned
  3. Bente Pit
    Surface metal/non-metal · Roverud Construction Inc · MSHA ID 1301108
    Abandoned
  4. Blume Quarry
    Surface metal/non-metal · Roverud Construction Inc · MSHA ID 1300806
    Abandoned
  5. Boege Quarry
    Surface metal/non-metal · Kuhlman Construction Company · MSHA ID 1300082
    Abandoned
  6. Burrack Quarry
    Surface metal/non-metal · Kuhlman Construction Company · MSHA ID 1301157
    Abandoned
  7. Clayton Plant
    Underground metal/non-metal · Martin Marietta Aggregates · MSHA ID 1300615
    Abandoned
  8. Doerring Quarry
    Surface metal/non-metal · Kuhlman Construction Company · MSHA ID 1300454
    Abandoned
  9. Eberhardt Quarry
    Surface metal/non-metal · Kuhlman Construction Company · MSHA ID 1300453
    Abandoned
  10. Elkader Sand Pit
    Surface metal/non-metal · Kuhlman Construction Company · MSHA ID 1300682
    Abandoned
  11. Essman Island Sand Pit
    Surface metal/non-metal · Swales Concrete Inc · MSHA ID 1301357
    Abandoned
  12. Fassbinder
    Surface metal/non-metal · Kuhlman Construction Company · MSHA ID 1300452
    Abandoned
  13. Giselson Quarry
    Surface metal/non-metal · Kuhlman Construction Company · MSHA ID 1300458
    Abandoned
  14. Harold Hartman Quarry
    Surface metal/non-metal · Harold Hartman · MSHA ID 1300050
    Abandoned
  15. Hiline Quarry
    Surface metal/non-metal · Kuhlman Construction Company · MSHA ID 1300079
    Abandoned
  16. Johnson Quarry
    Surface metal/non-metal · Kuhlman Construction Company · MSHA ID 1300301
    Abandoned
  17. Johnson Quarry
    Surface metal/non-metal · Roverud Construction Inc · MSHA ID 1301944
    Abandoned
  18. Kregel Quarry
    Surface metal/non-metal · Kuhlman Construction Company · MSHA ID 1301112
    Abandoned
  19. Kruse Quarry
    Surface metal/non-metal · Kuhlman Construction Company · MSHA ID 1301837
    Abandoned
  20. Larson Quarry
    Surface metal/non-metal · Roverud Construction Inc · MSHA ID 1301746
    Abandoned
  21. Mcgregor Quarry
    Surface metal/non-metal · Roverud Construction Inc · MSHA ID 1301270
    Abandoned
  22. Mielke Quarry
    Surface metal/non-metal · Bruening Rock Products Inc · MSHA ID 1301762
    Abandoned
  23. Morarend Quarry
    Surface metal/non-metal · Roverud Construction Inc · MSHA ID 1300858
    Abandoned
  24. Osterdock Quarry
    Surface metal/non-metal · Kuhlman Construction Company · MSHA ID 1300302
    Abandoned
  25. Pattison Brothers Incorporated
    Surface metal/non-metal · Pattison Brothers Inc · MSHA ID 1302197
    Abandoned
  26. PORTABLE TRACK CRUSHER #5
    Surface metal/non-metal · C.J. MOYNA & SONS, LLC. · MSHA ID 1302424
    Abandoned
  27. PORTABLE-NO. 6
    Surface metal/non-metal · Kuhlman Construction Company · MSHA ID 1302186
    Abandoned
  28. Schmidt
    Surface metal/non-metal · Kuhlman Construction Company · MSHA ID 1300080
    Abandoned
  29. Smith Quarry
    Surface metal/non-metal · Roverud Construction Inc · MSHA ID 1302055
    Abandoned
  30. Sny Magil Quarry
    Surface metal/non-metal · Roverud Construction Inc · MSHA ID 1301954
    Abandoned
  31. Strawberry Point Pit
    Surface metal/non-metal · Eno Sand & Gravel Company · MSHA ID 1301674
    Abandoned
  32. Thompson Quarry
    Surface metal/non-metal · Roverud Construction Inc · MSHA ID 1301700
    Abandoned
  33. Thurn Sand Pit
    Surface metal/non-metal · Kuhlman Construction Company · MSHA ID 1301740
    Abandoned
  34. Tucker Quarry
    Surface metal/non-metal · Roverud Construction Inc · MSHA ID 1301792
    Abandoned
  35. Twin Rocks Quarry Or Twin Rocks
    Surface metal/non-metal · Kuhlman Construction Company · MSHA ID 1300456
    Abandoned
  36. Watson Quarry
    Surface metal/non-metal · Roverud Construction Inc · MSHA ID 1300851
    Abandoned
  37. Wellman Quarry Or Wellman
    Surface metal/non-metal · Kuhlman Construction Company · MSHA ID 1300455
    Abandoned
  38. Zurcher Quarry
    Surface metal/non-metal · Roverud Construction Inc · MSHA ID 1301435
    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
Quarry 73
Sand Pit 10
Quarry 5
Adit 3
Disturbed Surface - Pit 2
Gravel Pit 1
Sand Pit 1
Other counties in IowaAll 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.