Abandoned mines in Fergus County, Montana

1. Mine openings

   shafts, adits, air shafts, portals and vertical openings: the ways into underground workings
   57 9.2%
2. Prospect pits and trenches

   shallow exploration diggings that never became a mine
   326 52.6%
3. Mines and surface workings

   labelled mines, open pits, strip mines, placer and hydraulic workings
   75 12.1%
4. Quarries, gravel and borrow pits

   construction-material and industrial-mineral extraction
   116 18.7%
5. Dumps, tailings, spoil and gob

   what mining left above ground
   22 3.5%
6. Mills, tipples and facilities

   processing plants and hazardous structures
   3 0.5%
7. Other reclamation problems

   highwalls, subsidence, polluted or clogged water, fires, slides and gases in OSMRE's inventory
   21 3.4%

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.

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.

1. BILL'S PORTABLE CRUSHER

   Surface metal/non-metal · Bill Dengel Construction · MSHA ID 2401815
   Abandoned 2001-09-11
2. Black Bull Mine

   Underground metal/non-metal · New Black Bull Joint Venture · MSHA ID 2400283
   Abandoned 1980-11-14
3. BLM SCREEN PLANT

   Surface metal/non-metal · U S Bureau Of Land Management · MSHA ID 2402106
   Abandoned 2001-11-05
4. Century Companies Inc Pugmill

   Surface metal/non-metal · Century Companies Inc · MSHA ID 2402128
   Abandoned 2012-12-06
5. Century Paving Portable Crusher

   Surface metal/non-metal · Century Paving · MSHA ID 2401798
   Abandoned 1986-08-11
6. Edwards

   Surface metal/non-metal · Copper Elk Atlantic Mining Joint Venture · MSHA ID 2401757
   Abandoned 1986-10-16
7. Edwards Mine

   Underground metal/non-metal · Resources Venture Inc · MSHA ID 2401477
   Abandoned 1980-01-14
8. Elk Peak

   Underground metal/non-metal · Blue Range Mining Company L P · MSHA ID 2401829
   Abandoned 1992-06-22
9. Gilt Edge Mine

   Underground metal/non-metal · Blue Range Mining Company L P · MSHA ID 2401030
   Abandoned 1991-07-01
10. Heath Mill

    Underground metal/non-metal · Blue Range Mining Company L P · MSHA ID 2400145
    Abandoned 1992-06-22
11. Hilger Mill

    Facility metal/non-metal · Hilger Ore Milling Company Inc · MSHA ID 2401289
    Abandoned 1979-05-17
12. Jim's Ready Mix

    Surface metal/non-metal · Jim's Ready Mix · MSHA ID 2401489
    Abandoned 2003-07-17
13. Kendall Mine

    Underground metal/non-metal · Geological Surveys Inc · MSHA ID 2401029
    Abandoned 1977-08-17
14. KENDALL MINE

    Surface metal/non-metal · Cr Kendall Corp · MSHA ID 2401628
    Abandoned 1999-02-08
15. Kodiak Concrete

    Surface metal/non-metal · Kodiak Concrete · MSHA ID 2402337
    Abandoned 2013-11-14
16. KOLBERG PLANT #63-8191

    Surface metal/non-metal · Montana Department Of Transportation · MSHA ID 2402001
    Abandoned 1999-01-08
17. KOLMAN SCREEN PLANT

    Surface metal/non-metal · Fergus County · MSHA ID 2402027
    Abandoned 2001-09-11
18. KONITZ PORTABLE CRUSHER #1

    Surface metal/non-metal · Konitz Contracting Inc · MSHA ID 2400936
    Abandoned 2006-09-11
19. Lakota Quarry

    Surface metal/non-metal · American Stoneworks, LLC · MSHA ID 2402388
    Abandoned 2007-11-26
20. Lewistown Pit

    Surface metal/non-metal · Lewistown Brick Inc · MSHA ID 2400084
    Abandoned 1979-09-04
21. M K Weeden Construction

    Surface metal/non-metal · M K Weeden Construction · MSHA ID 2402415
    Abandoned 2023-09-18
22. Maginnis Mine

    Surface metal/non-metal · Oro Cache LLP · MSHA ID 2401855
    Abandoned 1991-07-01
23. Maginnis Mine

    Surface metal/non-metal · Big Sky Resources LLC · MSHA ID 2402759
    Abandoned 2021-10-01
24. Maxwell Pit

    Surface metal/non-metal · Lewistown Brick Inc · MSHA ID 2401483
    Abandoned 1983-09-29
25. Mc Donald Ready Mix

    Surface metal/non-metal · Mc Donald Ready Mix · MSHA ID 2400476
    Abandoned 1988-05-24
26. Melichar

    Surface metal/non-metal · RT Logging · MSHA ID 2402617
    Abandoned 2012-08-09
27. Metso Mobile Screen

    Surface metal/non-metal · M.A. DeAtley Construction · MSHA ID 2402712
    Abandoned 2019-10-29
28. Montgomery Crusher

    Surface metal/non-metal · Montgomery Construction · MSHA ID 2401889
    Abandoned 2004-02-19
29. Moore Peavey

    Surface metal/non-metal · Niebur Excavating LLC · MSHA ID 2402507
    Abandoned 2018-02-26
30. N & R BUNN CRUSHER

    Facility metal/non-metal · Nancy & Roy Bunn · MSHA ID 2401797
    Abandoned 2002-04-22
31. New Hope Mine

    Underground metal/non-metal · Pita Mining Company · MSHA ID 2401837
    Abandoned 1988-07-13
32. Peerless Plant #63-3402

    Surface metal/non-metal · Montana Department Of Transportation · MSHA ID 2402002
    Abandoned 1993-07-19
33. PORTABLE CRUSHER #2

    Surface metal/non-metal · Konitz Contracting Inc · MSHA ID 2401813
    Abandoned 2006-09-11
34. SCREEN #1

    Surface metal/non-metal · Konitz Contracting Inc · MSHA ID 2402023
    Abandoned 2001-09-11
35. Screen #2

    Surface metal/non-metal · Konitz Contracting Inc · MSHA ID 2402174
    Abandoned 2003-09-30
36. Sheep Mtn Mine

    Underground metal/non-metal · Sheep Mtn Mining Co · MSHA ID 2401291
    Abandoned 1980-01-14
37. Spotted Horse Mine

    Underground metal/non-metal · Chelsea Resources (Us) Inc · MSHA ID 2400512
    Abandoned 1991-04-09
38. Tail Holt

    Underground metal/non-metal · Tail Holt Mining · MSHA ID 2401933
    Abandoned 1991-07-01
39. THE GOLDEN ARROW MINE

    Underground metal/non-metal · Golden Arrow Mining Co LLC · MSHA ID 2402194
    Abandoned 2005-11-17
40. War Eagle Mine

    Underground metal/non-metal · A & M Mining Co · MSHA ID 2401290
    Abandoned 1980-01-14
41. Wickens Sand & Gravel

    Surface metal/non-metal · Wickens Brothers · MSHA ID 2401446
    Abandoned 1983-09-29
42. Yogo Project

    Underground metal/non-metal · Miners Inc · MSHA ID 2402019
    Abandoned 1993-10-15

Status and date are as reported to MSHA by the operator. Each mine's own page carries its accident, citation and inspection record.

• Madison County 3,766
• Silver Bow County 2,397
• Jefferson County 1,973
• Lewis and Clark County 1,862
• Broadwater County 1,418
• Beaverhead County 1,378
• Carbon County 769
• Powell County 741
• Granite County 719
• Cascade County 708
• Deer Lodge County 688
• Meagher County 440

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.