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Abandoned mines › Maine
Abandoned mine inventory

Abandoned mines in Aroostook County, Maine

Aroostook County, Maine has 731 mine and prospect features on USGS topographic maps published 1951–1989; 1 of the features carry a name on the map. 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 Aroostook 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)
731
Mine openings
0
OSMRE problems unreclaimed
0
MSHA mines marked abandoned
41
1 features carry a name0 prospect pits140 quadrangle maps, published 1951–1989 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
    33 4.5%
  2. Quarries, gravel and borrow pits
    construction-material and industrial-mineral extraction
    698 95.5%
Named features on the maps1 named · from the USGS compilation
Name on map Feature
Lime Pit Gravel/Borrow Pit - Undifferentiated area

A name is the label printed beside the symbol on the map. "First mapped" is the earliest topographic edition that shows the symbol, which bounds the feature's age from above; it is not the date it was worked. Unnamed features (most prospect pits, adits and shafts carry no label) are in the counts above but not this list.

MSHA-registered mines with status Abandoned41 on register
  1. 10937 Kolman Screen
    Surface metal/non-metal · The Lane Construction Corporation · MSHA ID 1700784
    Abandoned
  2. 1979 BARBER GREENE
    Surface metal/non-metal · Town Of Madawaska · MSHA ID 1700550
    Abandoned
  3. Astec 300 P192051
    Surface metal/non-metal · Eurovia Atlantic Coast LLC · MSHA ID 1701132
    Abandoned
  4. Astec 350 P212209
    Surface metal/non-metal · Eurovia Atlantic Coast LLC · MSHA ID 1701131
    Abandoned
  5. Caribou Portable Screen
    Surface metal/non-metal · City Of Caribou · MSHA ID 1700539
    Abandoned
  6. CHAPMAN PIT
    Surface metal/non-metal · Dragon Products Company · MSHA ID 1700493
    Abandoned
  7. Chasse Gravel Screen
    Surface metal/non-metal · Chasse Gravel Service · MSHA ID 1700537
    Abandoned
  8. CHEIFTAN PORTABLE #1
    Surface metal/non-metal · Gdt Construction Inc · MSHA ID 1700668
    Abandoned
  9. Clyde Warman
    Surface metal/non-metal · Warman Trucking · MSHA ID 1700807
    Abandoned
  10. Cyr Pit & Plant Unit No 60-003
    Surface metal/non-metal · Maine Department Of Transportation · MSHA ID 1700514
    Abandoned
  11. DICKISON & LONDON #1
    Surface metal/non-metal · Dickison & London Inc · MSHA ID 1700680
    Abandoned
  12. DIV PORTABLE UNIT
    Surface metal/non-metal · Maine Department Of Transportation · MSHA ID 1700533
    Abandoned
  13. Fort Fairfield Marl Pit
    Surface metal/non-metal · Giles Lime Sales Inc · MSHA ID 1700435
    Abandoned
  14. Fort Fairfield Pit & Mill
    Surface metal/non-metal · Town Of Fort Fairfield · MSHA ID 1700408
    Abandoned
  15. Fort Fairfield Plant
    Surface metal/non-metal · Lane Construction Corp · MSHA ID 1700577
    Abandoned
  16. Gardiner Pit
    Surface metal/non-metal · Dickison & London Inc · MSHA ID 1700553
    Abandoned
  17. Island Pit
    Surface metal/non-metal · Presque Isle Sand & Gravel Company · MSHA ID 1700173
    Abandoned
  18. Lord Portable Screen
    Surface metal/non-metal · Town Of Fort Kent · MSHA ID 1700551
    Abandoned
  19. Lord Portable Screening Plant No 55-702
    Surface metal/non-metal · Maine Department Of Transportation · MSHA ID 1700534
    Abandoned
  20. MADAWASKA PLANT
    Surface metal/non-metal · Dragon Products Company · MSHA ID 1700331
    Abandoned
  21. MCBREAIRTY & SONS, INC.
    Surface metal/non-metal · Stonebridge Farm · MSHA ID 1700630
    Abandoned
  22. MCQUADE PIT AND MILL
    Surface metal/non-metal · A E Mc Quade & Sons Inc · MSHA ID 1700496
    Abandoned
  23. Nadeau Pit & Mill
    Surface metal/non-metal · Leo J Nadeau & Son Inc · MSHA ID 1700552
    Abandoned
  24. New Limerick Pit And Mill
    Surface metal/non-metal · Warren Brothers Company Inc · MSHA ID 1700449
    Abandoned
  25. Nordberg CV90D Screen
    Surface metal/non-metal · Eurovia Atlantic Coast LLC · MSHA ID 1700858
    Abandoned
  26. Northern Maine Paving Inc.
    Surface metal/non-metal · Northern Maine Paving Inc. · MSHA ID 1700872
    Abandoned
  27. Peerless Portable Screening Plant Unit N
    Surface metal/non-metal · Maine Department Of Transportation · MSHA ID 1700528
    Abandoned
  28. Phillip D Mitchell
    Surface metal/non-metal · Phillip D Mitchell · MSHA ID 1700684
    Abandoned
  29. PORTABLE COMMANDER #1
    Surface metal/non-metal · Phillip Mitchell · MSHA ID 1700677
    Abandoned
  30. Portable Plant - Town fo Frenchville
    Surface metal/non-metal · Town Of Frenchville · MSHA ID 1700513
    Abandoned
  31. PORTABLE UNIT
    Surface metal/non-metal · Harris Construction · MSHA ID 1700547
    Abandoned
  32. Presque Isle
    Surface metal/non-metal · Dragon Products Company · MSHA ID 1700240
    Abandoned
  33. Presque Isle Pit & Plant
    Surface metal/non-metal · Steelstone Industries Inc · MSHA ID 1700571
    Abandoned
  34. Putnam Pit
    Surface metal/non-metal · Town Of Houlton · MSHA ID 1700543
    Abandoned
  35. READ-90
    Surface metal/non-metal · A E Mcquade & Sons Inc · MSHA ID 1700712
    Abandoned
  36. RICHARD M. GOGAN
    Surface metal/non-metal · Richard M Gogan Construction · MSHA ID 1700679
    Abandoned
  37. TELESCREEN 4 X 8
    Surface metal/non-metal · A E Mcquade & Sons Inc · MSHA ID 1700713
    Abandoned
  38. TELESMITH 36 CONE
    Surface metal/non-metal · A E Mcquade & Sons Inc · MSHA ID 1700711
    Abandoned
  39. THERIAULT GRAVEL PIT
    Surface metal/non-metal · Town Of St Agatha · MSHA ID 1700687
    Abandoned
  40. Theriault Pit
    Surface metal/non-metal · Gerard Bob Theriault · MSHA ID 1700878
    Abandoned
  41. Washburn Pit And Mill
    Surface metal/non-metal · Bull Brothers Inc · MSHA ID 1700117
    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 329
Gravel Pit 287
Sand and Gravel Pit 18
Shale Pit 17
Open Pit Mine or Quarry 14
Sand and Gravel Pit 13
Shale Pit 12
Disturbed Surface 11
Gravel/Borrow Pit - Undifferentiated 9
Open Pit Mine or Quarry 7
Quarry 3
Sand Pit 2
Gravel/Borrow Pit - Undifferentiated 2
Borrow Pit 1
Clay Pit 1
Sand Pit 1
Quarry 1
Clay Pit 1
Open Pit Mine 1
Shell Pit 1
Other counties in MaineAll 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.