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Abandoned mines › Kentucky
Abandoned mine inventory

Abandoned mines in McLean County, Kentucky

McLean County, Kentucky has 43 mine and prospect features on USGS topographic maps published 1952–1983, including 30 mine openings (shafts, adits and air shafts). OSMRE's abandoned mine land inventory lists 23 problems in the county, 14 of them not yet reclaimed. MSHA's register carries 41 mines in the county with status Abandoned or Abandoned and Sealed.

Every mine and prospect feature the USGS digitized from historical topographic maps covering McLean 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)
43
Mine openings
30
OSMRE problems unreclaimed
14
MSHA mines marked abandoned
41
0 features carry a name0 prospect pits4 quadrangle maps, published 1952–1983 23 OSMRE problems, 9 reclaimed 2 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
    35 53.0%
  2. Mines and surface workings
    labelled mines, open pits, strip mines, placer and hydraulic workings
    13 19.7%
  3. Dumps, tailings, spoil and gob
    what mining left above ground
    4 6.1%
  4. Mills, tipples and facilities
    processing plants and hazardous structures
    1 1.5%
  5. Other reclamation problems
    highwalls, subsidence, polluted or clogged water, fires, slides and gases in OSMRE's inventory
    13 19.7%
OSMRE abandoned mine land problems23 on inventory
Problem area Problem Status
Buck Creek P2 Clogged Stream Lands Reclamation Completed
Buck Creek P2 Clogged Streams Reclamation Completed
Buttonsberry Drainag P1 Clogged Stream Lands In Reclamation
Buttonsberry Drainag P2 Dangerous Highwalls In Reclamation
Buttonsberry Drainag P2 Hazardous Equip & Facilities In Reclamation
Buttonsberry Drainag P2 Hazardous Water Bodies In Reclamation
Buttonsberry Drainag P3 Haul Road Reclamation Pending
Buttonsberry Drainag P3 Spoil Area Reclamation Pending
Buttonsberry Drainag P3 Water Problems Reclamation Pending
Gish Shaft P2 Vertical Openings In Reclamation
Hayden-cook P2 Dangerous Highwalls Reclamation Pending
Hayden-cook P3 Spoil Area Reclamation Pending
Island Shafts/pit P2 Clogged Stream Lands Reclamation Completed
Island Shafts/pit P2 Hazardous Water Bodies Reclamation Completed
Island Shafts/pit P2 Vertical Openings Reclamation Completed
Latham Shaft P2 Vertical Openings In Reclamation
North Island Shaft/pit P2 Hazardous Water Bodies Reclamation Completed
North Island Shaft/pit P2 Vertical Openings Reclamation Completed
Pre 87 P2 Dangerous Piles & Embankments Reclamation Completed
Wathen Mine Shafts P2 Vertical Openings Reclamation Pending
Wathen Mine Shafts P3 Gobs In Reclamation
West Fork Seepage P2 Clogged Stream Lands Reclamation Pending
Zeke Howard Subsidence Holes P1 Subsidence Reclamation Completed

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 Abandoned41 on register
  1. B & M Terminal
    Facility coal · Arch On The Green Inc · MSHA ID 1513948
    Abandoned
  2. Beech Grove
    Surface coal · Romar Mining Inc · MSHA ID 1512641
    Abandoned
  3. Bemco
    Surface coal · Bemco · MSHA ID 1515105
    Abandoned
  4. Black Hawk Mining Inc
    Surface coal · Black Hawk Mining Inc · MSHA ID 1517665
    Abandoned
  5. Black Hawk Mining Inc
    Surface coal · Black Hawk Mining Inc · MSHA ID 1517668
    Abandoned
  6. Buck Creek Dock
    Facility coal · Hartshorne Mining LLC · MSHA ID 1519804
    Abandoned
  7. Buel Mine Strip
    Surface coal · Corum & Co Inc · MSHA ID 1505504
    Abandoned
  8. Buttonsberry Mine
    Surface coal · Bremen Minerals Inc · MSHA ID 1516703
    Abandoned
  9. Cane Run Mine
    Surface coal · Winn Construction Company Inc · MSHA ID 1517186
    Abandoned
  10. Center Mine
    Surface coal · West Ken Coal Corp · MSHA ID 1503998
    Abandoned
  11. Cleopatra
    Surface coal · R & L Winn Mining · MSHA ID 1517773
    Abandoned
  12. Comy Dock
    Facility coal · Comy Company · MSHA ID 1505284
    Abandoned
  13. Cypress Creek
    Surface coal · Pond River Coal Llc · MSHA ID 1518330
    Abandoned
  14. Cypress Creek Tipple
    Facility coal · Alley-Cassetty Coal Company Inc · MSHA ID 1518367
    Abandoned
  15. Double B Mining Inc
    Surface coal · Double B Mining Inc · MSHA ID 1514817
    Abandoned
  16. Green River Mine
    Surface coal · Winn Construction Company Inc · MSHA ID 1516198
    Abandoned
  17. Harrison Const Co Inc Mine No6
    Surface coal · Harrison Construction Company Inc · MSHA ID 1514122
    Abandoned
  18. Heath No 3 Strip
    Surface coal · Dawn Coal Company · MSHA ID 1509644
    Abandoned
  19. Ibex Pit
    Surface coal · Ibex Coal Corp · MSHA ID 1516846
    Abandoned
  20. Island #1 Prep Plant
    Facility coal · Lst Inc · MSHA ID 1518077
    Abandoned
  21. Island Dock
    Facility coal · KenAmerican Resources, Inc. · MSHA ID 1518912
    Abandoned
  22. Island No 9 Strip
    Surface coal · Brown Badgett Inc · MSHA ID 1503844
    Abandoned
  23. Little Joe
    Surface coal · Bennett Sons · MSHA ID 1511637
    Abandoned
  24. Livermore Mine
    Surface coal · Brown Badgett Inc · MSHA ID 1506737
    Abandoned
  25. Magruder Mine
    Surface coal · Winn Construction Company Inc · MSHA ID 1516473
    Abandoned
  26. Maxwell Mine
    Surface coal · Winn Construction Company Inc · MSHA ID 1517458
    Abandoned
  27. Mclean Coal Mine
    Surface coal · Mc Lean Coal Company · MSHA ID 1508503
    Abandoned
  28. Mclean County Mine
    Surface coal · Phillip F Burden · MSHA ID 1517442
    Abandoned
  29. Mclean County No 1
    Surface coal · Ohio River Coal Company Inc · MSHA ID 1514962
    Abandoned
  30. Nuckols Mine
    Surface coal · Winn Construction Company Inc · MSHA ID 1516827
    Abandoned
  31. Poplar Grove
    Surface coal · Zielinski Construction Corp · MSHA ID 1517891
    Abandoned
  32. Poplar Grove Mine
    Underground coal · Hartshorne Mining LLC · MSHA ID 1519806
    Abandoned and Sealed
  33. Poplar Grove Preparation Plant
    Facility coal · Pollard Management Group of Kentucky, LLC · MSHA ID 1519828
    Abandoned
  34. Poplar Grove Tipple
    Facility coal · Alley-Cassetty Coal Company Inc · MSHA ID 1517906
    Abandoned
  35. Poverty Mine
    Facility coal · Winn Construction Company Inc · MSHA ID 1513264
    Abandoned
  36. Riveredge Mine
    Underground coal · Rough Creek Mining, LLC · MSHA ID 1519424
    Abandoned
  37. Riveredge Surface Operation
    Facility coal · Rough Creek Mining, LLC · MSHA ID 1519749
    Abandoned
  38. Sacramento Mine
    Surface coal · Centennial Resources Inc · MSHA ID 1517949
    Abandoned
  39. Sextet #1 Mine
    Underground coal · Sextet Mining Corp · MSHA ID 1517795
    Abandoned and Sealed
  40. Turtle Dove Mines
    Surface coal · Poplar Grove Mining Inc · MSHA ID 1516268
    Abandoned
  41. Yellow Creek
    Surface coal · Rickey S Winn Construction · MSHA ID 1517468
    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
Adit 19
Strip Mine 12
Mine Shaft 11
P2 Vertical Openings 5
P2 Hazardous Water Bodies 3
P2 Clogged Stream Lands 3
P3 Spoil Area 2
P2 Dangerous Highwalls 2
P2 Clogged Streams 1
P2 Hazardous Equip & Facilities 1
P1 Subsidence 1
P2 Dangerous Piles & Embankments 1
P3 Gobs 1
P3 Water Problems 1
P1 Clogged Stream Lands 1
Disturbed Surface 1
P3 Haul Road 1
Other counties in KentuckyAll 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.