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Abandoned mines › Minnesota
Abandoned mine inventory

Abandoned mines in Blue Earth County, Minnesota

Blue Earth County, Minnesota has 83 mine and prospect features on USGS topographic maps published 1950–1993. 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 Blue Earth 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)
83
Mine openings
0
OSMRE problems unreclaimed
0
MSHA mines marked abandoned
42
0 features carry a name0 prospect pits13 quadrangle maps, published 1950–1993 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
    1 1.2%
  2. Quarries, gravel and borrow pits
    construction-material and industrial-mineral extraction
    82 98.8%
MSHA-registered mines with status Abandoned42 on register
  1. #0521 Guaranteed Wash Plant
    Surface metal/non-metal · Southern MN Construction · MSHA ID 2100521
    Abandoned
  2. #2956 Hewitt Robins Crusher
    Surface metal/non-metal · Southern MN Construction · MSHA ID 2102956
    Abandoned
  3. #3060 Hewitt Robins Crusher (Kasota)
    Surface metal/non-metal · Southern Minnesota Construction · MSHA ID 2103060
    Abandoned
  4. #3377 El Jay Wash Plant
    Surface metal/non-metal · Southern MN Construction · MSHA ID 2103377
    Abandoned
  5. #3411 Kohlman Screen Plant
    Surface metal/non-metal · Southern Minnesota Construction Co. Inc. · MSHA ID 2103411
    Abandoned
  6. #3413 Finley Screener
    Surface metal/non-metal · Southern MN Construction · MSHA ID 2103413
    Abandoned
  7. #3483 Cedar Rapids VSI
    Surface metal/non-metal · Southern MN Construction · MSHA ID 2103483
    Abandoned
  8. #3496 El Jay Cone
    Surface metal/non-metal · Southern Minnesota Construction Company, Inc. · MSHA ID 2103496
    Abandoned
  9. #3530 Hydro Grid Screener
    Surface metal/non-metal · Southern MN Construction · MSHA ID 2103530
    Abandoned
  10. #401 Cedarapids Jaw Crusher-Portable
    Surface metal/non-metal · Southern Minnesota Construction Company Inc · MSHA ID 2102957
    Abandoned
  11. #403 Pioneer Roll Crusher-Portable
    Surface metal/non-metal · Southern Minnesota Construction Company Inc · MSHA ID 2102958
    Abandoned
  12. #4093 Eljay Crusher Jefferson
    Surface metal/non-metal · Southern Minnesota Construction Company, Inc. · MSHA ID 2100056
    Abandoned
  13. #4098 Lippman Jaw
    Surface metal/non-metal · Southern Minnesota Construction Company, Inc. · MSHA ID 2103427
    Abandoned
  14. #99-249 Cedar Rapids Jaw
    Surface metal/non-metal · Southern Minnesota Construction Company, Inc. · MSHA ID 2103432
    Abandoned
  15. 00972
    Surface metal/non-metal · Minnesota Paving & Materials · MSHA ID 2102959
    Abandoned
  16. 01971 C
    Surface metal/non-metal · Southern Minnesota Construction · MSHA ID 2103503
    Abandoned
  17. Abbas Pit
    Surface metal/non-metal · Ed Swartout Inc · MSHA ID 2102809
    Abandoned
  18. BLUE EARTH COUNTY PITS
    Surface metal/non-metal · H R Loveall Construction Inc · MSHA ID 2100522
    Abandoned
  19. Crowell Pit
    Surface metal/non-metal · Carlson Brothers Inc · MSHA ID 2102827
    Abandoned
  20. Crusher #1
    Surface metal/non-metal · Lewis Construction · MSHA ID 2103331
    Abandoned
  21. El Jay 45 Portable Cone Crusher
    Surface metal/non-metal · Southern MN Construction · MSHA ID 2103691
    Abandoned
  22. El Jay Portable 6 x 20 Screener
    Surface metal/non-metal · Southern MN Construction · MSHA ID 2103714
    Abandoned
  23. Evans Pit
    Surface metal/non-metal · Christenson Construction · MSHA ID 2101665
    Abandoned
  24. Foley Stay Pit
    Surface metal/non-metal · Martin Marietta Materials Inc. · MSHA ID 2103409
    Abandoned
  25. Hanel Pit
    Surface metal/non-metal · Rehnelt Excavating, LLC · MSHA ID 2103849
    Abandoned
  26. Kasota Quarry
    Surface metal/non-metal · Martin Marietta Materials Inc. · MSHA ID 2102961
    Abandoned
  27. Kasota Valley Quarry
    Surface metal/non-metal · Cold Spring Granite Company · MSHA ID 2103507
    Abandoned
  28. Lundin 8th Avenue Quarry And Mill
    Surface metal/non-metal · Lundin Construction Company Inc · MSHA ID 2101662
    Abandoned
  29. Lundin Construction Sand & Gravel
    Surface metal/non-metal · Lundin Construction Company Inc · MSHA ID 2100055
    Abandoned
  30. Mankato
    Surface metal/non-metal · Jordan Sands, LLC · MSHA ID 2103834
    Abandoned
  31. MKS III
    Surface metal/non-metal · Mankato Kasota Stone, Inc. · MSHA ID 2103478
    Abandoned
  32. MSK-1
    Surface metal/non-metal · Mankato Kasota Stone Inc · MSHA ID 2100057
    Abandoned
  33. Plant 1
    Surface metal/non-metal · Holtmeier Construction Inc · MSHA ID 2103869
    Abandoned
  34. Plant 4
    Surface metal/non-metal · Holtmeier Construction Inc · MSHA ID 2103420
    Abandoned
  35. Plant 5
    Surface metal/non-metal · Holtmeier Construction Inc · MSHA ID 2103883
    Abandoned
  36. PORTABLE CRUSHING III
    Surface metal/non-metal · Brielmaier Aggregates Inc · MSHA ID 2103091
    Abandoned
  37. PORTABLE KAOLIN
    Surface metal/non-metal · Minnesota Valley Minerals Inc · MSHA ID 2103179
    Abandoned
  38. Radical Pit
    Surface metal/non-metal · Forrey Septic Systems and Excavating LLC · MSHA ID 2103763
    Abandoned
  39. Stripping Crew
    Surface metal/non-metal · Holtmeier Construction, Inc. · MSHA ID 2103685
    Abandoned
  40. Stripping Crew #2
    Surface metal/non-metal · Holtmeier Construction Inc · MSHA ID 2103998
    Abandoned
  41. WLC-3
    Surface metal/non-metal · W Lorentz & Sons Construction Inc. · MSHA ID 2104022
    Abandoned
  42. WW 700 ind.rd mine
    Surface metal/non-metal · WW Blacktopping Inc. · MSHA ID 2103754
    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 61
Gravel Pit 15
Quarry 3
Quarry 2
Gravel/Borrow Pit - Undifferentiated 1
Open Pit Mine or Quarry 1
Other counties in MinnesotaAll 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.