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Abandoned mines › Maine
Abandoned mine inventory

Abandoned mines in Oxford County, Maine

Oxford County, Maine has 271 mine and prospect features on USGS topographic maps published 1927–1995, including 3 mine openings (shafts, adits and air shafts); 2 of the features carry a name on the map. MSHA's register carries 42 mines in the county with status Abandoned or Abandoned and Sealed.

Every mine and prospect feature the USGS digitized from historical topographic maps covering Oxford 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)
271
Mine openings
3
OSMRE problems unreclaimed
0
MSHA mines marked abandoned
42
2 features carry a name0 prospect pits47 quadrangle maps, published 1927–1995 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
    3 1.1%
  2. Mines and surface workings
    labelled mines, open pits, strip mines, placer and hydraulic workings
    9 3.3%
  3. Quarries, gravel and borrow pits
    construction-material and industrial-mineral extraction
    259 95.6%
Named features on the maps2 named · from the USGS compilation
Name on map Feature
Ice Cave Adit
Newry Mine Open Pit Mine 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 Abandoned42 on register
  1. #8 Pit And Plant
    Surface metal/non-metal · Bennett & Son Construction Compan · MSHA ID 1700466
    Abandoned
  2. ALBANY PIT
    Surface metal/non-metal · Murch Inc · MSHA ID 1700662
    Abandoned
  3. AUSTIN WESTON PORTABLE CRUSHER
    Surface metal/non-metal · GL TIBBETTS EXCAVATION INC · MSHA ID 1700733
    Abandoned
  4. Bennett Mines
    Surface metal/non-metal · Mt Zion Mining Company · MSHA ID 1700454
    Abandoned
  5. Brownfield Pit
    Surface metal/non-metal · R. Rolfe Corporation · MSHA ID 1701139
    Abandoned
  6. Canton Plant
    Surface metal/non-metal · Tilcon Maine Inc · MSHA ID 1700211
    Abandoned
  7. CEDAR RAPIDS PORTABLE CRUSHER
    Surface metal/non-metal · GL TIBBETTS EXCAVATION INC · MSHA ID 1700734
    Abandoned
  8. Cole Pit
    Surface metal/non-metal · D.A. Wilson Co., LLC · MSHA ID 1700848
    Abandoned
  9. Colton Hill Prospect
    Surface metal/non-metal · Colton Hill Prospect · MSHA ID 1700628
    Abandoned
  10. Davis Pit
    Surface metal/non-metal · Bear River Excavation · MSHA ID 1700788
    Abandoned
  11. Dunham Pit
    Surface metal/non-metal · Esmond K Dunham Jr · MSHA ID 1700460
    Abandoned
  12. Frost Mountain Sand & Gravel LLC
    Surface metal/non-metal · Frost Mountain Sand & Gravel LLC · MSHA ID 1700752
    Abandoned
  13. GE-SE Mine
    Underground metal/non-metal · Coromoto Minerals, LLC · MSHA ID 1700957
    Abandoned
  14. Gestaut Mines
    Surface metal/non-metal · Mt Zion Mining Company · MSHA ID 1700446
    Abandoned
  15. Hadley's Pit
    Surface metal/non-metal · Keith Hadley Inc. · MSHA ID 1700962
    Abandoned
  16. High Street Pit
    Surface metal/non-metal · AARE LLC · MSHA ID 1700790
    Abandoned
  17. Industrial Garnet
    Facility metal/non-metal · World Minerals Corp · MSHA ID 1700092
    Abandoned
  18. Labreque Pit
    Surface metal/non-metal · Town Of Bethel · MSHA ID 1700369
    Abandoned
  19. Lovell Pit
    Surface metal/non-metal · R. Rolfe Corporation · MSHA ID 1701134
    Abandoned
  20. Mende'S Pit
    Surface metal/non-metal · Maine Department Of Transportation · MSHA ID 1700502
    Abandoned
  21. Mexico Pit
    Surface metal/non-metal · P H Chadbourne & Company · MSHA ID 1700464
    Abandoned
  22. Mt Mica Pit
    Underground metal/non-metal · Plumbago Mining Corp · MSHA ID 1700442
    Abandoned
  23. Newry Pit And Mill
    Surface metal/non-metal · P H Chadbourne & Company · MSHA ID 1700150
    Abandoned
  24. Newry Pit And Mill
    Surface metal/non-metal · Tilcon Warren Quarries Inc · MSHA ID 1700491
    Abandoned
  25. NORTH WATERFORD PIT & MILL
    Surface metal/non-metal · Pike Industries Inc · MSHA ID 1700310
    Abandoned
  26. Plumbago Gem Pit
    Underground metal/non-metal · Plumbago Mining Corp · MSHA ID 1700269
    Abandoned
  27. Portable 2
    Surface metal/non-metal · Dragon Products Company · MSHA ID 1700169
    Abandoned
  28. Portable Plant
    Surface metal/non-metal · Town Of Oxford Highway Department · MSHA ID 1700370
    Abandoned
  29. Portable Plant
    Surface metal/non-metal · Town Of Paris · MSHA ID 1700372
    Abandoned
  30. Portable Sand Screen 001692
    Surface metal/non-metal · Pike Industries Inc · MSHA ID 1700722
    Abandoned
  31. R & S Swan Pit
    Surface metal/non-metal · R & S Swan · MSHA ID 1700341
    Abandoned
  32. R A Tibbetts Portable
    Surface metal/non-metal · R A Tibbetts · MSHA ID 1700786
    Abandoned
  33. RE Bean Portable
    Surface metal/non-metal · R.E. Bean Sr. · MSHA ID 1700787
    Abandoned
  34. River Brook Aggregates
    Surface metal/non-metal · River Brook Aggregates LLC · MSHA ID 1700948
    Abandoned
  35. Stearns Pit
    Surface metal/non-metal · Brown & Wiley Mining · MSHA ID 1700421
    Abandoned
  36. Town Of Norway Pit
    Surface metal/non-metal · Town Of Norway · MSHA ID 1700371
    Abandoned
  37. TRUNDY PIT
    Surface metal/non-metal · J PRATT CONSTRUCTION INC · MSHA ID 1701082
    Abandoned
  38. Upper And Lower Mt Rubellite
    Surface metal/non-metal · Plumbago Mining Corp · MSHA ID 1700517
    Abandoned
  39. Vittum Pit And Plant
    Surface metal/non-metal · Vittum Sand & Gravel · MSHA ID 1700433
    Abandoned
  40. Von And Son Pit
    Surface metal/non-metal · Von & Son Trucking · MSHA ID 1700487
    Abandoned
  41. Waisamen Pit
    Surface metal/non-metal · Arden L Andrews · MSHA ID 1700097
    Abandoned
  42. West Paris Pit And Plant
    Surface metal/non-metal · Town Of West Paris · MSHA ID 1700420
    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 186
Gravel Pit 25
Quarry 24
Sand Pit 13
Open Pit Mine or Quarry 8
Sand and Gravel Pit 4
Gravel/Borrow Pit - Undifferentiated 3
Adit 3
Sand Pit 3
Open Pit Mine 1
Sand and Gravel 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.