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Abandoned mines › Michigan
Abandoned mine inventory

Abandoned mines in Tuscola County, Michigan

Tuscola County, Michigan has 512 mine and prospect features on USGS topographic maps published 1963–1980. OSMRE's abandoned mine land inventory lists 8 problems in the county, 1 of them not yet reclaimed. MSHA's register carries 45 mines in the county with status Abandoned or Abandoned and Sealed.

Every mine and prospect feature the USGS digitized from historical topographic maps covering Tuscola 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)
512
Mine openings
0
OSMRE problems unreclaimed
1
MSHA mines marked abandoned
45
0 features carry a name0 prospect pits23 quadrangle maps, published 1963–1980 8 OSMRE problems, 7 reclaimed 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
    4 0.8%
  2. Mines and surface workings
    labelled mines, open pits, strip mines, placer and hydraulic workings
    18 3.5%
  3. Quarries, gravel and borrow pits
    construction-material and industrial-mineral extraction
    493 94.8%
  4. Dumps, tailings, spoil and gob
    what mining left above ground
    2 0.4%
  5. Mills, tipples and facilities
    processing plants and hazardous structures
    2 0.4%
  6. Other reclamation problems
    highwalls, subsidence, polluted or clogged water, fires, slides and gases in OSMRE's inventory
    1 0.2%
OSMRE abandoned mine land problems8 on inventory
Problem area Problem Status
Handy No. 4 P2 Vertical Openings Reclamation Pending
Mi - Tuscola - Fea P1 Vertical Openings Reclamation Completed
Molner P2 Hazardous Equip & Facilities Reclamation Completed
Molner P2 Vertical Openings Reclamation Completed
Molner P3 Gobs Reclamation Completed
Robert Gage No. 10 P2 Hazardous Equip & Facilities Reclamation Completed
Robert Gage No. 10 P2 Surface Burning Reclamation Completed
Robert Gage No. 10 P2 Vertical Openings 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 Abandoned45 on register
  1. #1
    Surface metal/non-metal · Michalski Excavating LLC · MSHA ID 2003584
    Abandoned
  2. AMBROSE ROAD
    Surface metal/non-metal · Lee Wood Contracting Inc · MSHA ID 2003030
    Abandoned
  3. Blumfield Sand and Gravel
    Surface metal/non-metal · DHT Excavating · MSHA ID 2003599
    Abandoned
  4. C.L.D. SAND & GRAVEL, INC.
    Surface metal/non-metal · C L D Sand & Gravel Inc · MSHA ID 2000667
    Abandoned
  5. Caro Limekiln Mill
    Facility metal/non-metal · Michigan Sugar Company · MSHA ID 2002275
    Abandoned
  6. Caro Sand And Gravel
    Surface metal/non-metal · Del Nichols Trucking · MSHA ID 2002339
    Abandoned
  7. Cat Lake Road Pit
    Surface metal/non-metal · Chuck Vaughan Sand & Gravel · MSHA ID 2002742
    Abandoned
  8. CEDAR RAPIDS COMMANDER #1
    Surface metal/non-metal · V1-Aggregates · MSHA ID 2003109
    Abandoned
  9. Findlay 390
    Surface metal/non-metal · B K Crushing LLC · MSHA ID 2003318
    Abandoned
  10. FINLAY
    Surface metal/non-metal · P T I Construction Company · MSHA ID 2002914
    Abandoned
  11. Finlay 1
    Surface metal/non-metal · Lyon Sand & Gravel Co · MSHA ID 2003393
    Abandoned
  12. Finlay 390
    Surface metal/non-metal · Saginaw Valley Aggregate · MSHA ID 2003386
    Abandoned
  13. Fintec 570
    Surface metal/non-metal · Saginaw Valley Aggregate · MSHA ID 2003317
    Abandoned
  14. Juniata Sand
    Surface metal/non-metal · Juniata Sand Company · MSHA ID 2003265
    Abandoned
  15. KOLBERG PORTABLE WASH PLANT
    Surface metal/non-metal · Quality Excavating & Equipment Leasing · MSHA ID 2003245
    Abandoned
  16. Lyon Portable Wash Plant
    Surface metal/non-metal · Lyon Sand & Gravel Co. · MSHA ID 2003429
    Abandoned
  17. Mac Sand Sales
    Surface metal/non-metal · Mac Sand Sales · MSHA ID 2001297
    Abandoned
  18. Michigan Aggregate
    Surface metal/non-metal · Palmer Farms Inc · MSHA ID 2003545
    Abandoned
  19. Michigan Sand Products LLC
    Surface metal/non-metal · Michigan Sand Products LLC · MSHA ID 2003556
    Abandoned
  20. Millington Gravel LLC
    Surface metal/non-metal · Millington Gravel LLC · MSHA ID 2001579
    Abandoned
  21. Olds Sand & Gravel
    Surface metal/non-metal · Olds Sand & Gravel LLC · MSHA ID 2003418
    Abandoned
  22. Peterhans Gravel
    Surface metal/non-metal · Peterhans Gravel · MSHA ID 2001083
    Abandoned
  23. Plant #2
    Surface metal/non-metal · Michigan Sand Products LLC · MSHA ID 2003568
    Abandoned
  24. Plant 8
    Surface metal/non-metal · International Materials Inc · MSHA ID 2002786
    Abandoned
  25. Plant No 1
    Surface metal/non-metal · Great Lakes Minerals Company · MSHA ID 2000733
    Abandoned
  26. Portable Eljay Plant
    Surface metal/non-metal · Quality Excavating & Equipment Leasing · MSHA ID 2003095
    Abandoned
  27. Portable Telsmith Plant
    Surface metal/non-metal · Quality Excavating & Equipment Leasing · MSHA ID 2003152
    Abandoned
  28. Pt Sand & Gravel
    Surface metal/non-metal · Pt Sand & Gravel · MSHA ID 2002765
    Abandoned
  29. Richmond Pit
    Surface metal/non-metal · Frank Strausberg & Son Inc · MSHA ID 2002334
    Abandoned
  30. ROHLOFF SAND & GRAVEL CO.
    Surface metal/non-metal · Rohloff Sand & Gravel Company · MSHA ID 2002980
    Abandoned
  31. S&S SAND & GRAVEL
    Surface metal/non-metal · S & S Sand & Gravel · MSHA ID 2002764
    Abandoned
  32. Screening Plant #1
    Surface metal/non-metal · Sargent Sand Company · MSHA ID 2002706
    Abandoned
  33. SIMPSON AGGREGATE
    Surface metal/non-metal · Simpson Rocks-N-Stones · MSHA ID 2003166
    Abandoned
  34. Telsmith Plant
    Surface metal/non-metal · Sargent Sand Company · MSHA ID 2002611
    Abandoned
  35. Tuckey Dredge
    Surface metal/non-metal · Tuckey Block Company Inc · MSHA ID 2000862
    Abandoned
  36. TUSCOLA AGGREGATES
    Surface metal/non-metal · Tuscola Aggregates · MSHA ID 2003219
    Abandoned
  37. Tuscola County Pit
    Surface metal/non-metal · Holloway Sand & Gravel Company Inc · MSHA ID 2002495
    Abandoned
  38. Tuscola County Pit
    Surface metal/non-metal · Spartan Aggregates Inc · MSHA ID 2002630
    Abandoned
  39. Tuscola Gravel Pit
    Surface metal/non-metal · C R Hunt Construction Company · MSHA ID 2000930
    Abandoned
  40. Two Creeks Pit
    Surface metal/non-metal · Two Creeks Soil and Stone · MSHA ID 2003430
    Abandoned
  41. Usko Farms LLC
    Surface metal/non-metal · Usko Farms LLC · MSHA ID 2003591
    Abandoned
  42. V T - 555 Plant
    Surface metal/non-metal · B K Crushing LLC · MSHA ID 2003279
    Abandoned
  43. VASSAR DRYING PLANT
    Surface metal/non-metal · Sargent Sand Company · MSHA ID 2001337
    Abandoned
  44. Vassar Gravel Pit And Mill
    Surface metal/non-metal · Sargent Sand Company · MSHA ID 2001582
    Abandoned
  45. Washburn Road Pit
    Surface metal/non-metal · Bernthal Inc · MSHA ID 2000675
    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
Sand Pit 173
Gravel Pit 157
Gravel Pit 87
Sand Pit 73
Disturbed Surface - Pit 16
P2 Vertical Openings 3
P2 Hazardous Equip & Facilities 2
Gravel/Borrow Pit - Undifferentiated 2
Disturbed Surface 2
P2 Surface Burning 1
P1 Vertical Openings 1
P3 Gobs 1
Mine Dump 1
Sand and Gravel Pit 1
Other counties in MichiganAll 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.