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Abandoned mines › Kansas
Abandoned mine inventory

Abandoned mines in Linn County, Kansas

Linn County, Kansas has 52 mine and prospect features on USGS topographic maps published 1957–1983, including 12 mine openings (shafts, adits and air shafts). OSMRE's abandoned mine land inventory lists 30 problems in the county, 22 of them not yet reclaimed. MSHA's register carries 28 mines in the county with status Abandoned or Abandoned and Sealed.

Every mine and prospect feature the USGS digitized from historical topographic maps covering Linn 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)
52
Mine openings
12
OSMRE problems unreclaimed
22
MSHA mines marked abandoned
28
0 features carry a name0 prospect pits12 quadrangle maps, published 1957–1983 30 OSMRE problems, 8 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
    12 14.6%
  2. Mines and surface workings
    labelled mines, open pits, strip mines, placer and hydraulic workings
    22 26.8%
  3. Quarries, gravel and borrow pits
    construction-material and industrial-mineral extraction
    18 22.0%
  4. Dumps, tailings, spoil and gob
    what mining left above ground
    11 13.4%
  5. Other reclamation problems
    highwalls, subsidence, polluted or clogged water, fires, slides and gases in OSMRE's inventory
    19 23.2%
OSMRE abandoned mine land problems30 on inventory
Problem area Problem Status
Benchmark 782 P2 Dangerous Highwalls Reclamation Pending
East Laberdee Creek P2 Dangerous Highwalls Reclamation Pending
Indian Creek P2 Clogged Streams Reclamation Pending
Indian Creek P2 Dangerous Highwalls In Reclamation
Indian Creek P2 Dangerous Impoundments Reclamation Completed
Indian Creek P2 Polluted Water: Agricultural & Industrial Reclamation Completed
Indian Creek P3 Gobs Reclamation Completed
Indian Creek P3 Spoil Area In Reclamation
Indian Creek South P2 Clogged Streams Reclamation Pending
Indian Creek South P2 Dangerous Highwalls In Reclamation
Indian Creek South P3 Spoil Area Reclamation Pending
Lowe #3 P2 Dangerous Highwalls Reclamation Completed
Lowe #3 P2 Dangerous Highwalls Reclamation Pending
Lowe #3 P3 High Wall Reclamation Pending
Lowe #3 P3 Spoil Area Reclamation Pending
Lowe #3 P3 Spoil Area Reclamation Pending
Mine Creek P3 Gobs Reclamation Pending
Pleasanton P2 Dangerous Highwalls In Reclamation
Pleasanton P3 Spoil Area Reclamation Pending
Prescott P2 Dangerous Highwalls Reclamation Completed
Prescott P2 Industrial/Residential Waste Reclamation Completed
Prescott P3 Spoil Area Reclamation Pending
Prescott Northeast P2 Dangerous Highwalls In Reclamation
Prescott Northeast P3 Spoil Area In Reclamation
School 74 P2 Dangerous Highwalls Reclamation Completed
School 74 P3 High Wall Reclamation Pending
School 74 P3 Spoil Area In Reclamation
South Lowe #3 P2 Dangerous Highwalls Reclamation Completed
Worland P2 Dangerous Highwalls Reclamation Pending
Worland P3 Spoil Area 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 Abandoned28 on register
  1. 3R ROCK PRODUCTS PORTABLE #1
    Surface metal/non-metal · Rock Ridge Ranch Trust · MSHA ID 1401586
    Abandoned
  2. B-Jay Rock Products
    Surface metal/non-metal · B-Jay Rock Products · MSHA ID 1401491
    Abandoned
  3. Bettis Equipment #662 & 663
    Surface metal/non-metal · Mid-States Materials LLC · MSHA ID 1401685
    Abandoned
  4. Cadmus Pit #2
    Surface metal/non-metal · Wade Agricultural Products, Inc · MSHA ID 1401739
    Abandoned
  5. Cadmus Quarry
    Surface metal/non-metal · Wade Agricultural Products Inc · MSHA ID 1401167
    Abandoned
  6. CEDAR CREEK PORTABLE
    Surface metal/non-metal · Ash Grove Aggregates Inc · MSHA ID 1401591
    Abandoned
  7. Centerville Quarry And Mill
    Surface metal/non-metal · Mc Adam Construction Company Inc · MSHA ID 1400885
    Abandoned
  8. Fyock Strip
    Surface coal · Fyock Coal Company · MSHA ID 1400249
    Abandoned
  9. Gardner
    Surface metal/non-metal · Apac-Kansas, Inc. · MSHA ID 1401636
    Abandoned
  10. Greeley Quarry
    Surface metal/non-metal · Wade Agricultural Products Inc · MSHA ID 1401383
    Abandoned
  11. Greely Quarry
    Surface metal/non-metal · Mid-States Materials, LLC · MSHA ID 1401637
    Abandoned
  12. LA CYGNE PLANT
    Surface metal/non-metal · Ash Grove Aggregates Inc · MSHA ID 1401180
    Abandoned
  13. Laberdie Ii
    Surface coal · Continental Coal Inc · MSHA ID 1401595
    Abandoned
  14. Lacygne Quarry
    Surface metal/non-metal · Wade Agricultural Products Inc · MSHA ID 1401097
    Abandoned
  15. Linn County No 1 Strip
    Surface coal · Mine Creel Coal Company Inc · MSHA ID 1401272
    Abandoned
  16. Lost Creek Mine
    Surface coal · Continental Coal Inc · MSHA ID 1401596
    Abandoned
  17. Lucky Strike Mine
    Surface coal · Continental Coal, Inc. · MSHA ID 1401631
    Abandoned
  18. Miller Quarry
    Surface metal/non-metal · Jay-Tee Company Inc · MSHA ID 1401112
    Abandoned
  19. Mound City Quarry And Mill
    Surface metal/non-metal · Mc Adam Construction Company Inc · MSHA ID 1400797
    Abandoned
  20. Nation Rock
    Surface metal/non-metal · Nation Rock · MSHA ID 1400202
    Abandoned
  21. Pleasanton
    Surface metal/non-metal · Apac-Kansas Inc · MSHA ID 1401643
    Abandoned
  22. Pleasanton #3
    Surface metal/non-metal · Batesco Quarries · MSHA ID 1401411
    Abandoned
  23. Pleasanton #5
    Surface metal/non-metal · Bates County Rock Division · MSHA ID 1400041
    Abandoned
  24. Pleasanton Quarry
    Surface metal/non-metal · Wade Crushed Stone · MSHA ID 1401198
    Abandoned
  25. Prescott No 1 Strip
    Surface coal · Osage Mining & Engineering Inc · MSHA ID 1401267
    Abandoned
  26. Prescott Quarry
    Surface metal/non-metal · Wade Crushed Stone · MSHA ID 1401281
    Abandoned
  27. Snowhill Rock
    Surface metal/non-metal · Snowhill Rock Company · MSHA ID 1401774
    Abandoned
  28. Universal Portable Plant
    Surface metal/non-metal · Ash Grove Aggregates Inc · MSHA ID 1401564
    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
Strip Mine 17
P2 Dangerous Highwalls 12
Mine Shaft 12
P3 Spoil Area 9
Quarry 5
Gravel Pit 5
Gravel Pit 4
Disturbed Surface - Pit 3
Quarry 2
P3 High Wall 2
Gravel/Borrow Pit - Undifferentiated 2
P3 Gobs 2
Disturbed Surface 2
P2 Clogged Streams 2
P2 Polluted Water: Agricultural & Industrial 1
P2 Industrial/Residential Waste 1
P2 Dangerous Impoundments 1
Other counties in KansasAll 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.