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

Abandoned mines in Essex County, Massachusetts

Essex County, Massachusetts has 218 mine and prospect features on USGS topographic maps published 1918–1979. MSHA's register carries 31 mines in the county with status Abandoned or Abandoned and Sealed.

Every mine and prospect feature the USGS digitized from historical topographic maps covering Essex 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)
218
Mine openings
0
OSMRE problems unreclaimed
0
MSHA mines marked abandoned
31
0 features carry a name0 prospect pits18 quadrangle maps, published 1918–1979 0 MSHA mines abandoned and sealed
What the features are
  1. Mines and surface workings
    labelled mines, open pits, strip mines, placer and hydraulic workings
    21 9.6%
  2. Quarries, gravel and borrow pits
    construction-material and industrial-mineral extraction
    197 90.4%
MSHA-registered mines with status Abandoned31 on register
  1. Austin Western Portable
    Surface metal/non-metal · Thomas E Giusto Excavation · MSHA ID 1901040
    Abandoned
  2. Bass River Quarry
    Surface metal/non-metal · Manchester Crushed Stone Corp · MSHA ID 1900991
    Abandoned
  3. Buzzell Pit And Plant
    Surface metal/non-metal · Ralph L Buzzell Inc · MSHA ID 1900607
    Abandoned
  4. Center Street Pit
    Surface metal/non-metal · Peter H Arakelian & Son Inc · MSHA ID 1900604
    Abandoned
  5. Donald Innis Incorporated
    Surface metal/non-metal · Donald Innis Inc · MSHA ID 1900786
    Abandoned
  6. Finlay Hydra Screen SN-H-440462
    Surface metal/non-metal · Bentley Warren Trucking Inc · MSHA ID 1901161
    Abandoned
  7. GEORGETOWN SAND AND GRAVEL CO, INC
    Surface metal/non-metal · Georgetown Sand & Gravel Company Inc · MSHA ID 1900311
    Abandoned
  8. Goodhue Pit
    Surface metal/non-metal · R W Drinkwater Inc · MSHA ID 1900793
    Abandoned
  9. Groveland Operation
    Surface metal/non-metal · Trimount Bituminous Products Company · MSHA ID 1900334
    Abandoned
  10. Haverhill Pit
    Surface metal/non-metal · Early & Sons Inc · MSHA ID 1900935
    Abandoned
  11. Haverhill Sand & Gravel Inc Pit
    Surface metal/non-metal · Haverhill Sand & Gravel Inc · MSHA ID 1900745
    Abandoned
  12. Heath Pit
    Surface metal/non-metal · Haverhill Highway Department · MSHA ID 1900801
    Abandoned
  13. Johnson'S Quarry
    Surface metal/non-metal · Johnson'S Quarry Inc · MSHA ID 1901032
    Abandoned
  14. K & R Jaw
    Surface metal/non-metal · K and R Construction Co LLC · MSHA ID 1901292
    Abandoned
  15. MASTER KRUSH PORTABLE
    Surface metal/non-metal · Newbury Trucking Service Inc · MSHA ID 1901038
    Abandoned
  16. Mavrofrides Brothers
    Surface metal/non-metal · Mavrofrides Brothers · MSHA ID 1900595
    Abandoned
  17. Mc Niff-Dominic Pit
    Surface metal/non-metal · Mc Niff Company Inc · MSHA ID 1900782
    Abandoned
  18. McCloskey 621 Screener
    Surface metal/non-metal · Bentley Warren Trucking Inc · MSHA ID 1901053
    Abandoned
  19. Middle Road-Amesbury Plant
    Surface metal/non-metal · Maurice Concrete Products Inc · MSHA ID 1900603
    Abandoned
  20. Morse Pit And Plant
    Surface metal/non-metal · John R Morse · MSHA ID 1900584
    Abandoned
  21. Newton Pit
    Surface metal/non-metal · Roy Brothers Construction Company · MSHA ID 1900822
    Abandoned
  22. PORTABLE #1
    Surface metal/non-metal · Manter Company Inc · MSHA ID 1900798
    Abandoned
  23. Portable Crusher No 1
    Surface metal/non-metal · Bentley Warren Trucking Inc · MSHA ID 1901012
    Abandoned
  24. Portable Plant
    Surface metal/non-metal · International Earthmoving Corp · MSHA ID 1901042
    Abandoned
  25. PORTABLE POWERSCREEN S/N 2711527
    Surface metal/non-metal · Newbury Trucking Service Inc · MSHA ID 1901037
    Abandoned
  26. Rocco Zambino & Sons Inc.
    Surface metal/non-metal · Rocco Zambino & Sons Inc · MSHA ID 1900357
    Abandoned
  27. Rockport Cut Granite
    Surface metal/non-metal · Rockport Cut Granite · MSHA ID 1901304
    Abandoned
  28. SAUGUS QUARRY
    Surface metal/non-metal · Aggregate Industries Northeast Region Inc · MSHA ID 1900042
    Abandoned
  29. Strong Industries Corporation
    Surface metal/non-metal · Strong Industries Corp · MSHA ID 1900335
    Abandoned
  30. Tenney Street Pit
    Surface metal/non-metal · Sharon Contracting Inc · MSHA ID 1900744
    Abandoned
  31. The Pines Pit
    Surface metal/non-metal · Peter H Arakelian & Son Inc · MSHA ID 1900810
    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
Gravel Pit 139
Gravel Pit 26
Quarry 16
Open Pit Mine or Quarry 12
Quarry 8
Disturbed Surface 8
Sand and Gravel Pit 4
Gravel/Borrow Pit - Undifferentiated 3
Sand Pit 1
Open Pit Mine or Quarry 1
Other counties in MassachusettsAll 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.