Abandoned mines in Macon County, Missouri
Macon County, Missouri has 49 mine and prospect features on USGS topographic maps published 1937–1979. OSMRE's abandoned mine land inventory lists 64 problems in the county, 36 of them not yet reclaimed. MSHA's register carries 3 mines in the county with status Abandoned or Abandoned and Sealed.
Every mine and prospect feature the USGS digitized from historical topographic maps covering Macon 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)
- 49
- Mine openings
- 0
- OSMRE problems unreclaimed
- 36
- MSHA mines marked abandoned
- 3
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4 3.5%Mine openingsshafts, adits, air shafts, portals and vertical openings: the ways into underground workings
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45 39.8%Mines and surface workingslabelled mines, open pits, strip mines, placer and hydraulic workings
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2 1.8%Quarries, gravel and borrow pitsconstruction-material and industrial-mineral extraction
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19 16.8%Dumps, tailings, spoil and gobwhat mining left above ground
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2 1.8%Mills, tipples and facilitiesprocessing plants and hazardous structures
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41 36.3%Other reclamation problemshighwalls, subsidence, polluted or clogged water, fires, slides and gases in OSMRE's inventory
| Problem area | Problem | Status |
|---|---|---|
| Claybank Creek | P1 Subsidence | Reclamation Completed |
| Claybank Creek | P1 Vertical Openings | Reclamation Completed |
| Claybank Creek | P2 Clogged Stream Lands | Reclamation Pending |
| Claybank Creek | P2 Clogged Streams | Reclamation Pending |
| Claybank Creek | P2 Dangerous Highwalls | Reclamation Completed |
| Claybank Creek | P2 Dangerous Piles & Embankments | Reclamation Completed |
| Claybank Creek | P3 Gobs | Reclamation Pending |
| Claybank Creek | P3 Haul Road | Reclamation Pending |
| Claybank Creek | P3 Industrial/Residential Waste | Reclamation Pending |
| Claybank Creek | P3 Other | Reclamation Pending |
| Claybank Creek | P3 Spoil Area | Reclamation Pending |
| Claybank Creek | P3 Water Problems | Reclamation Pending |
| Hensley | P3 Spoil Area | Reclamation Pending |
| Highway T | P1 Subsidence | Reclamation Completed |
| Keota Gob Pile | P2 Clogged Streams | Reclamation Completed |
| Keota Gob Pile | P2 Dangerous Piles & Embankments | Reclamation Completed |
| Keota Gob Pile | P2 Hazardous Equip & Facilities | Reclamation Completed |
| Keota Gob Pile | P2 Polluted Water: Agricultural & Industrial | Reclamation Completed |
| Keota Gob Pile | P2 Polluted Water: Human Consumption | Reclamation Completed |
| Kohl | P3 Equipment Facility | Reclamation Pending |
| Kohl | P3 Gobs | Reclamation Pending |
| Kohl | P3 Pits | Reclamation Pending |
| Kohl | P3 Water Problems | Reclamation Pending |
| North Weyer | P2 Dangerous Highwalls | In Reclamation |
| North Weyer | P2 Dangerous Piles & Embankments | Reclamation Completed |
| North Weyer | P2 Vertical Openings | Reclamation Completed |
| North Weyer | P3 Bench | Reclamation Completed |
| North Weyer | P3 Haul Road | Reclamation Pending |
| North Weyer | P3 High Wall | Reclamation Pending |
| North Weyer | P3 Industrial/Residential Waste | Reclamation Completed |
| North Weyer | P3 Other | Reclamation Pending |
| North Weyer | P3 Pits | Reclamation Pending |
| North Weyer | P3 Spoil Area | In Reclamation |
| Old Bevier | P2 Clogged Stream Lands | In Reclamation |
| Old Bevier | P2 Clogged Streams | Reclamation Completed |
| Old Bevier | P2 Dangerous Highwalls | Reclamation Completed |
| Old Bevier | P2 Dangerous Piles & Embankments | Reclamation Completed |
| Old Bevier | P2 Hazardous Equip & Facilities | Reclamation Completed |
| Old Bevier | P2 Polluted Water: Agricultural & Industrial | Reclamation Completed |
| Old Bevier | P2 Vertical Openings | Reclamation Completed |
| Old Bevier | P3 Gobs | Reclamation Pending |
| Old Bevier | P3 Haul Road | In Reclamation |
| Old Bevier | P3 High Wall | In Reclamation |
| Old Bevier | P3 Industrial/Residential Waste | In Reclamation |
| Old Bevier | P3 Other | Reclamation Completed |
| Old Bevier | P3 Pits | In Reclamation |
| Old Bevier | P3 Slump | In Reclamation |
| Old Bevier | P3 Spoil Area | Reclamation Completed |
| Old Bevier | P3 Spoil Area | In Reclamation |
| Old Bevier | P3 Water Problems | Reclamation Completed |
| Picklesimmer | P2 Dangerous Highwalls | Reclamation Pending |
| Picklesimmer | P3 High Wall | Reclamation Pending |
| Picklesimmer | P3 Spoil Area | Reclamation Pending |
| Red Springs | P2 Dangerous Piles & Embankments | Reclamation Completed |
| Red Springs | P3 Industrial/Residential Waste | Reclamation Pending |
| Red Springs | P3 Slump | Reclamation Pending |
| Southeast Macon Subsidnc | P2 Subsidence | Reclamation Pending |
| Teter Shaft | P2 Industrial/Residential Waste | Reclamation Completed |
| Teter Shaft | P2 Vertical Openings | Reclamation Completed |
| Teter Shaft | P3 Equipment Facility | Reclamation Completed |
| Teter Shaft | P3 Gobs | Reclamation Completed |
| Winniger | P3 Gobs | Reclamation Pending |
| Winniger | P3 Haul Road | Reclamation Pending |
| Winniger | P3 Spoil Area | Reclamation Pending |
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.
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Bee-Veer MineAbandoned 1980-02-08Surface coal · Associated Electric Cooperative Inc · MSHA ID 2300404
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BENTLEY TRUCKING INC #1Abandoned 2006-05-18Surface metal/non-metal · Bentley Trucking Inc · MSHA ID 2301983
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D A Young MaterialsAbandoned 1987-02-20Surface metal/non-metal · D A Young Materials · MSHA ID 2301503
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 |
|---|---|
| Strip Mine | 30 |
| Open Pit Mine or Quarry | 11 |
| P3 Spoil Area | 7 |
| P3 Gobs | 5 |
| P2 Dangerous Piles & Embankments | 5 |
| P2 Dangerous Highwalls | 4 |
| P3 Industrial/Residential Waste | 4 |
| P3 Haul Road | 4 |
| P3 Pits | 3 |
| P3 Other | 3 |
| P3 High Wall | 3 |
| P2 Clogged Streams | 3 |
| Strip Mine | 3 |
| P3 Water Problems | 3 |
| P2 Vertical Openings | 3 |
| P3 Slump | 2 |
| P2 Polluted Water: Agricultural & Industrial | 2 |
| Mine Dump | 2 |
| P3 Equipment Facility | 2 |
| P2 Clogged Stream Lands | 2 |
| P2 Hazardous Equip & Facilities | 2 |
| P1 Subsidence | 2 |
| P2 Polluted Water: Human Consumption | 1 |
| Quarry | 1 |
| P2 Subsidence | 1 |
| P2 Industrial/Residential Waste | 1 |
| P3 Bench | 1 |
| P1 Vertical Openings | 1 |
| Disturbed Surface | 1 |
| Sand Pit | 1 |
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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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).
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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.