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Abandoned mines › Missouri
Abandoned mine inventory

Abandoned mines in St. Louis County, Missouri

St. Louis County, Missouri has 85 mine and prospect features on USGS topographic maps published 1933–1994, including 3 mine openings (shafts, adits and air shafts); 2 of the features carry a name on the map. MSHA's register carries 41 mines in the county with status Abandoned or Abandoned and Sealed.

Every mine and prospect feature the USGS digitized from historical topographic maps covering St. Louis 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)
85
Mine openings
3
OSMRE problems unreclaimed
0
MSHA mines marked abandoned
41
2 features carry a name0 prospect pits17 quadrangle maps, published 1933–1994 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 3.5%
  2. Mines and surface workings
    labelled mines, open pits, strip mines, placer and hydraulic workings
    21 24.7%
  3. Quarries, gravel and borrow pits
    construction-material and industrial-mineral extraction
    59 69.4%
  4. Dumps, tailings, spoil and gob
    what mining left above ground
    2 2.4%
Named features on the maps2 named · from the USGS compilation
Name on map Feature
Ash Disposal Ponds Tailings - Pond area
Limekiln Open Pit Mine or Quarry

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 Abandoned41 on register
  1. Alton Brick Co Pit & Plant
    Surface metal/non-metal · Alton Brick Company · MSHA ID 2300317
    Abandoned
  2. Bussen Sand Plant
    Surface metal/non-metal · Bussen Quarries Inc · MSHA ID 2301383
    Abandoned
  3. BUSSEN SOUTH UG
    Underground metal/non-metal · Bussen Quarries Inc · MSHA ID 2302116
    Abandoned
  4. C-R Recycle Plant 23-02476
    Surface metal/non-metal · Fred Weber, Inc. · MSHA ID 2302476
    Abandoned
  5. Classifying Dredge
    Surface metal/non-metal · West Lake Quarry & Material Company · MSHA ID 2301964
    Abandoned
  6. Des Peres Quarry And Mill
    Surface metal/non-metal · Des Peres Quarry Inc · MSHA ID 2300050
    Abandoned
  7. Dredge Hummingbird
    Surface metal/non-metal · Limited Leasing Company · MSHA ID 2301745
    Abandoned
  8. Dredge Mark V
    Surface metal/non-metal · Gateway Dredging and Contracting LLC · MSHA ID 2301386
    Abandoned
  9. DREDGE MISSISSIPPI
    Surface metal/non-metal · Limited Leasing Company · MSHA ID 2301358
    Abandoned
  10. Dredge Traveler
    Surface metal/non-metal · Limited Leasing Company · MSHA ID 2301797
    Abandoned
  11. Eagle Wash Plant
    Surface metal/non-metal · Fred Weber, Inc. · MSHA ID 2302479
    Abandoned
  12. Ellisville Fire Clay Mine
    Surface metal/non-metal · Highlands Fire Clay Company · MSHA ID 2300358
    Abandoned
  13. Eureka Sand & Gravel
    Surface metal/non-metal · Eureka Sand & Gravel Company · MSHA ID 2300687
    Abandoned
  14. GENERAL MATERIAL
    Facility metal/non-metal · General Material Company · MSHA ID 2301596
    Abandoned
  15. Kingfish
    Surface metal/non-metal · Jotori Dredging Inc · MSHA ID 2300582
    Abandoned
  16. North Quarry (CS55)
    Surface metal/non-metal · Central Stone Company · MSHA ID 2300223
    Abandoned
  17. Orth Brothers Quarry And Mill
    Surface metal/non-metal · Orth Brothers · MSHA ID 2300169
    Abandoned
  18. Pacific Sand & Gravel Company
    Surface metal/non-metal · Pacific Sand & Gravel · MSHA ID 2300710
    Abandoned
  19. Pacific UG
    Underground metal/non-metal · U. S. Silica Company · MSHA ID 2302579
    Abandoned
  20. Pacific Works Underground Mill
    Facility metal/non-metal · Pennsylvania Glass Sand Corp · MSHA ID 2301061
    Abandoned
  21. Peerless Park Pit And Plant
    Surface metal/non-metal · Pacific Aggregate Inc · MSHA ID 2301070
    Abandoned
  22. Portable # 7
    Surface metal/non-metal · Fred Weber Inc. · MSHA ID 2302319
    Abandoned
  23. Portable #2
    Surface metal/non-metal · Fred Weber Inc · MSHA ID 2300296
    Abandoned
  24. Portable #5
    Surface metal/non-metal · Fred Weber Inc · MSHA ID 2302203
    Abandoned
  25. QUEENFISH
    Surface metal/non-metal · Jotori Dredging Inc · MSHA ID 2301385
    Abandoned
  26. Ranken Location
    Surface metal/non-metal · Simpson Materials Company, LLC · MSHA ID 2302010
    Abandoned
  27. Riverside Sand Plant
    Facility metal/non-metal · Riverside Sand & Dredging Company · MSHA ID 2301639
    Abandoned
  28. Riverview Quarry Incorporated (North)
    Surface metal/non-metal · Riverview Quarry Inc · MSHA ID 2300181
    Abandoned
  29. Ruprecht Quarry
    Surface metal/non-metal · Bussen Quarries Inc · MSHA ID 2300186
    Abandoned
  30. S & G Sand & Gravel
    Surface metal/non-metal · S & G Sand & Gravel Inc · MSHA ID 2302048
    Abandoned
  31. Saint Charles Sand Company Plant No
    Facility metal/non-metal · St Charles Sand Company · MSHA ID 2300952
    Abandoned
  32. Simpson Sand And Gravel Pit And Plant
    Surface metal/non-metal · Simpson Sand & Gravel Company Inc · MSHA ID 2300862
    Abandoned
  33. SOUTH STONE
    Surface metal/non-metal · Fred Weber Inc · MSHA ID 2300219
    Abandoned
  34. St Charles Company Plant No 1b
    Facility metal/non-metal · St Charles Sand Company · MSHA ID 2300724
    Abandoned
  35. St Charles Sand Co Plant No 1
    Facility metal/non-metal · St Charles Sand Company · MSHA ID 2300723
    Abandoned
  36. St Louis Clay Pit & Plant
    Surface metal/non-metal · Alpha Portland Cement Company · MSHA ID 2300004
    Abandoned
  37. Underground Plant #5
    Underground metal/non-metal · Bussen Quarries Inc · MSHA ID 2301828
    Abandoned
  38. Universal 130/150 HSI
    Surface metal/non-metal · Fred Weber, Inc. · MSHA ID 2302443
    Abandoned
  39. West Lake Quarry-Plant No 1
    Surface metal/non-metal · West Lake Quarry & Material Company · MSHA ID 2300768
    Abandoned
  40. West Lake Sand Plant & Dredge
    Surface metal/non-metal · West Lake Quarry & Material Company · MSHA ID 2300731
    Abandoned
  41. WINTER BROTHERS
    Surface metal/non-metal · Winter Brothers Material Company · MSHA ID 2300735
    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/Borrow Pit - Undifferentiated 24
Open Pit Mine or Quarry 13
Quarry 11
Gravel/Borrow Pit - Undifferentiated 11
Gravel Pit 5
Open Pit Mine or Quarry 5
Quarry 4
Gravel Pit 3
Adit 3
Disturbed Surface 2
Tailings - Pond 1
Mine Dump 1
Sand and Gravel Pit 1
Disturbed Surface - Pit 1
Other counties in MissouriAll 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.