Abandoned mines in Cass County, Michigan
Cass County, Michigan has 97 mine and prospect features on USGS topographic maps published 1945–1981. MSHA's register carries 20 mines in the county with status Abandoned or Abandoned and Sealed.
Every mine and prospect feature the USGS digitized from historical topographic maps covering Cass 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)
- 97
- Mine openings
- 0
- OSMRE problems unreclaimed
- 0
- MSHA mines marked abandoned
- 20
-
97 100.0%Quarries, gravel and borrow pitsconstruction-material and industrial-mineral extraction
-
A & K Excavating PitAbandoned 1986-07-17Surface metal/non-metal · A & K Excavating Company Inc · MSHA ID 2002435
-
A/C H 4000Abandoned 2026-08-18Surface metal/non-metal · Kalin Construction Company Inc · MSHA ID 2002394
-
BRETSCHNEIDER PIT & MILLAbandoned 2003-10-15Surface metal/non-metal · Aggregate Materials Corp · MSHA ID 2002253
-
Cass County PitAbandoned 1978-07-14Surface metal/non-metal · Kalin Construction Company Inc · MSHA ID 2002342
-
Cass County PitAbandoned 1978-08-08Surface metal/non-metal · Yerington Construction Company · MSHA ID 2002392
-
Cass County PitAbandoned 1985-05-06Surface metal/non-metal · Steve Szymonski · MSHA ID 2002652
-
Cass County PitAbandoned 1983-12-20Surface metal/non-metal · Tracy Sand & Gravel · MSHA ID 2002668
-
CCRC Cedar RapidsAbandoned 2005-09-07Surface metal/non-metal · Cass County Road Commission · MSHA ID 2003046
-
CCRC EL JAYAbandoned 2019-06-19Surface metal/non-metal · Cass County Road Commission · MSHA ID 2002340
-
Indiana Highways Materials Pit AndAbandoned 1980-04-08Surface metal/non-metal · Indiana Highways Materials Inc · MSHA ID 2002341
-
Millikin Pit And MillAbandoned 1978-12-27Surface metal/non-metal · Rieth-Riley Construction Company Inc · MSHA ID 2002353
-
Niles Sand & GravelAbandoned 2004-08-25Surface metal/non-metal · Nieb Concrete Product · MSHA ID 2000796
-
Norris PitAbandoned 1981-08-20Surface metal/non-metal · Rieth-Riley Construction Company Inc · MSHA ID 2002354
-
Poehlman Marl PitAbandoned 1985-09-19Surface metal/non-metal · Poehlman & Sons · MSHA ID 2000050
-
Rudell PitAbandoned 1987-12-08Surface metal/non-metal · G L Rudell Sand & Gravel · MSHA ID 2002474
-
RUNKLE ROAD PLANTAbandoned 2002-07-29Surface metal/non-metal · Aggregate Industries Northeast Regi · MSHA ID 2002781
-
Silver Creek PitAbandoned 1993-08-30Surface metal/non-metal · Harry Fetke & Sons Contractors · MSHA ID 2000750
-
SILVER CREEK PITAbandoned 2001-05-21Surface metal/non-metal · West Shore Sand & Gravel Company · MSHA ID 2002921
-
Three S Sand And Gravel Pit & MillAbandoned 1981-05-13Surface metal/non-metal · Sirovica & Hessey · MSHA ID 2001042
-
Whit-Pond Pit And MillAbandoned 1978-07-19Surface metal/non-metal · Kuert Concrete Inc · MSHA ID 2000881
Status and date are as reported to MSHA by the operator. Each mine's own page carries its accident, citation and inspection record.
| Feature type | Features |
|---|---|
| Gravel Pit | 71 |
| Gravel Pit | 17 |
| Sand Pit | 4 |
| Marl Pit | 3 |
| Sand Pit | 2 |
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.
-
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.
-
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.
-
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.
-
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.
-
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.
-
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.
-
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).
-
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.