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Abandoned mines › Kentucky
Abandoned mine inventory

Abandoned mines in Wolfe County, Kentucky

Wolfe County, Kentucky has 51 mine and prospect features on USGS topographic maps published 1951–1971, including 38 mine openings (shafts, adits and air shafts). OSMRE's abandoned mine land inventory lists 7 problems in the county, 1 of them not yet reclaimed. MSHA's register carries 49 mines in the county with status Abandoned or Abandoned and Sealed.

Every mine and prospect feature the USGS digitized from historical topographic maps covering Wolfe 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)
51
Mine openings
38
OSMRE problems unreclaimed
1
MSHA mines marked abandoned
49
0 features carry a name0 prospect pits5 quadrangle maps, published 1951–1971 7 OSMRE problems, 6 reclaimed 1 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
    38 65.5%
  2. Mines and surface workings
    labelled mines, open pits, strip mines, placer and hydraulic workings
    11 19.0%
  3. Quarries, gravel and borrow pits
    construction-material and industrial-mineral extraction
    2 3.4%
  4. Dumps, tailings, spoil and gob
    what mining left above ground
    2 3.4%
  5. Other reclamation problems
    highwalls, subsidence, polluted or clogged water, fires, slides and gases in OSMRE's inventory
    5 8.6%
OSMRE abandoned mine land problems7 on inventory
Problem area Problem Status
Devils Creek Spoil P3 Bench Reclamation Completed
Devils Creek Spoil P3 Spoil Area Reclamation Completed
Flat Mary/bethany Phase I P2 Polluted Water: Human Consumption Reclamation Completed
Hazel Green Wastewater Collection S P3 Other Reclamation Pending
Mark Spaulding Landslides P1 Dangerous Slides Reclamation Completed
Mary/Bethany Flat Phase II WSP P2 Polluted Water: Human Consumption Reclamation Completed
Pre 87 P1 Dangerous Piles & Embankments 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 Abandoned49 on register
  1. #1
    Surface coal · Al-Co Mining Inc · MSHA ID 1516578
    Abandoned
  2. #1 Prep Plant
    Facility coal · C O T Coal Company Inc · MSHA ID 1510109
    Abandoned
  3. #1 Surface
    Surface coal · Dumas Coal Company Inc · MSHA ID 1513902
    Abandoned
  4. #1 Surface
    Surface coal · Pelfrey & Rose · MSHA ID 1514405
    Abandoned
  5. #2 Surface
    Surface coal · Mid-Eastern Energy Inc · MSHA ID 1512014
    Abandoned
  6. Auger No 1
    Surface coal · Allen & Marshall Augering Company Inc · MSHA ID 1517426
    Abandoned and Sealed
  7. Bethany No 1 Surface
    Surface coal · Wolfe County Mining & Development Corp · MSHA ID 1509990
    Abandoned
  8. Big Andy #1
    Surface coal · Ruby Coal Company · MSHA ID 1517124
    Abandoned
  9. Campton Tipple
    Facility coal · Campton Processing, LLC · MSHA ID 1515010
    Abandoned
  10. Cross Roads Mine #1
    Surface coal · Cross Roads Mining Company Inc · MSHA ID 1514624
    Abandoned
  11. Gillmore No. 1
    Surface coal · SF Contracting, LLC · MSHA ID 1519647
    Abandoned
  12. John Galt 1 3
    Facility coal · John Galt Energy Corp · MSHA ID 1511290
    Abandoned
  13. Mill Creek Stone Incorporated
    Underground metal/non-metal · Mill Creek Stone Inc · MSHA ID 1500195
    Abandoned
  14. Mine #1
    Surface coal · Devil Creek Mining Co LLC · MSHA ID 1518848
    Abandoned
  15. Mine #1
    Surface coal · Kentucky Standard Energy Company Inc · MSHA ID 1519277
    Abandoned
  16. No 1 Mine (Surface)
    Surface coal · Keeys Brothers Mining Inc · MSHA ID 1511857
    Abandoned
  17. No 1 Prep Plant
    Facility coal · Campton Coal Products Inc · MSHA ID 1508691
    Abandoned
  18. No 1 Prep Plant
    Facility coal · Denniston Coal Company · MSHA ID 1511428
    Abandoned
  19. No 1 Prep Plant
    Facility coal · J & A Coal Processing Inc · MSHA ID 1515372
    Abandoned
  20. No 1 Preparation Plant
    Surface coal · Pine Ridge Processing Inc · MSHA ID 1508623
    Abandoned
  21. No 1 Surface
    Surface coal · Cable Coal Company · MSHA ID 1508568
    Abandoned
  22. No 1 Surface
    Surface coal · Wells & Son Inc · MSHA ID 1508926
    Abandoned
  23. No 1 Surface
    Surface coal · J & E Coal Company Inc · MSHA ID 1508983
    Abandoned
  24. No 1 Surface
    Surface coal · S & B Coal Company Inc · MSHA ID 1509786
    Abandoned
  25. No 1 Surface
    Surface coal · Blackjack Coal Company Inc · MSHA ID 1509816
    Abandoned
  26. No 1 Surface
    Surface coal · St Clair-Hanover Coal Company · MSHA ID 1510468
    Abandoned
  27. No 1 Surface
    Surface coal · Booth Ridge Coal Company Inc · MSHA ID 1511078
    Abandoned
  28. No 1 Surface
    Surface coal · Cedar Ridge Coal Company Inc · MSHA ID 1511715
    Abandoned
  29. No 1 Surface
    Surface coal · Ex Coal Sales Inc · MSHA ID 1511943
    Abandoned
  30. No 1 Surface
    Surface coal · Locust Grove Inc · MSHA ID 1512275
    Abandoned
  31. No 1 Surface
    Surface coal · Whitaker Enterprises Inc · MSHA ID 1512392
    Abandoned
  32. No 1 Surface
    Surface coal · Unity Coal Inc · MSHA ID 1512436
    Abandoned
  33. No 1 Surface
    Surface coal · Apex Mining Inc · MSHA ID 1512830
    Abandoned
  34. No 1 Surface
    Surface coal · Apex Mining Inc · MSHA ID 1514792
    Abandoned
  35. No 1 Surface
    Surface coal · Perco Mining Inc · MSHA ID 1515028
    Abandoned
  36. No 1 Surface
    Surface coal · Mount Vernon Mining Inc · MSHA ID 1515108
    Abandoned
  37. No 1 Surface Mine
    Surface coal · Vortex Development Company · MSHA ID 1508049
    Abandoned
  38. No 1 Surface Mine
    Surface coal · Drake Coal Company Inc · MSHA ID 1508074
    Abandoned
  39. No 1 Surface Mine
    Surface coal · Toni Coal Company Inc · MSHA ID 1508494
    Abandoned
  40. No 3 Surface
    Surface coal · Nickell Construction Company · MSHA ID 1508690
    Abandoned
  41. No 3 Surface
    Surface coal · Locust Grove Inc · MSHA ID 1516983
    Abandoned
  42. No 4 Surface
    Surface coal · Locust Grove Inc · MSHA ID 1516866
    Abandoned
  43. No1 Surface
    Surface coal · Russell Centers · MSHA ID 1515570
    Abandoned
  44. Number One Preparation Plant
    Facility coal · Shenandoah Coal Company Inc · MSHA ID 1512606
    Abandoned
  45. St Clair Hanover #1
    Surface coal · Cravat Coal Coal Company Inc · MSHA ID 1513389
    Abandoned
  46. Stoker Inc
    Facility coal · Stoker Inc · MSHA ID 1511289
    Abandoned
  47. Surface Mine #1
    Surface coal · Collins & May Mining Company Inc · MSHA ID 1514077
    Abandoned
  48. Wolfe Surface
    Surface coal · Al Mining Inc · MSHA ID 1509557
    Abandoned
  49. Zachariah #1
    Surface coal · Dumas Coal Company Inc · MSHA ID 1515810
    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 38
Strip Mine 11
P2 Polluted Water: Human Consumption 2
P1 Dangerous Piles & Embankments 1
P3 Bench 1
Gravel Pit 1
Quarry 1
P3 Other 1
P3 Spoil Area 1
P1 Dangerous Slides 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.