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Abandoned mines › Montana
Abandoned mine inventory

Abandoned mines in Ravalli County, Montana

Ravalli County, Montana has 285 mine and prospect features on USGS topographic maps published 1959–1999, including 37 mine openings (shafts, adits and air shafts) and 155 prospect pits; 11 of the features carry a name on the map. OSMRE's abandoned mine land inventory lists 10 problems in the county, 4 of them not yet reclaimed. MSHA's register carries 36 mines in the county with status Abandoned or Abandoned and Sealed.

Every mine and prospect feature the USGS digitized from historical topographic maps covering Ravalli 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)
285
Mine openings
37
OSMRE problems unreclaimed
4
MSHA mines marked abandoned
36
11 features carry a name155 prospect pits37 quadrangle maps, published 1959–1999 10 OSMRE problems, 6 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
    40 13.6%
  2. Prospect pits and trenches
    shallow exploration diggings that never became a mine
    155 52.5%
  3. Mines and surface workings
    labelled mines, open pits, strip mines, placer and hydraulic workings
    21 7.1%
  4. Quarries, gravel and borrow pits
    construction-material and industrial-mineral extraction
    68 23.1%
  5. Dumps, tailings, spoil and gob
    what mining left above ground
    7 2.4%
  6. Mills, tipples and facilities
    processing plants and hazardous structures
    1 0.3%
  7. Other reclamation problems
    highwalls, subsidence, polluted or clogged water, fires, slides and gases in OSMRE's inventory
    3 1.0%
Named features on the maps11 named · from the USGS compilation
Name on map Feature
Cleveland Mine Mine Shaft
Cleveland Mine Mine Shaft
Copper Queen Mine Mine Shaft
Copper Queen Mine Prospect Pit
Crystal Mountain Mine Open Pit Mine
Curlew Mines Mine Shaft
Lucky Joe Mine Mine
Lucky Joe Mine Prospect Pit
Lutz Mine Adit
Montana Prince Mine Adit
Taylor Creek Mine Open Pit Mine

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.

OSMRE abandoned mine land problems10 on inventory
Problem area Problem Status
Bluebird P2 Dangerous Piles & Embankments Reclamation Pending
Bluebird P2 Vertical Openings Reclamation Pending
Curlew Mine P2 Dangerous Highwalls Reclamation Completed
Curlew Mine P2 Dangerous Piles & Embankments Reclamation Completed
Curlew Mine P2 Hazardous Water Bodies Reclamation Completed
Curlew Mine P2 Industrial/Residential Waste Reclamation Completed
Curlew Mine P2 Portals Reclamation Completed
Curlew Mine P2 Vertical Openings Reclamation Completed
Montana Prince P2 Dangerous Piles & Embankments Reclamation Pending
Montana Prince P2 Hazardous Equip & Facilities 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.

MSHA-registered mines with status Abandoned36 on register
  1. BIG CRUSH
    Surface metal/non-metal · Big Crush Gravel & Equipment Llc · MSHA ID 2402162
    Abandoned
  2. Bitterroot Rock
    Surface metal/non-metal · Bitterroot Rock Products · MSHA ID 2402155
    Abandoned
  3. Bitterroot Rock Pit
    Surface metal/non-metal · Bitterroot Ready Mix & Concrete · MSHA ID 2402411
    Abandoned
  4. Blahnik Portable
    Surface metal/non-metal · Blahnik Construction Inc · MSHA ID 2401910
    Abandoned
  5. Clark Brothers Portable Crusher #1
    Surface metal/non-metal · Clark Brothers Contractors · MSHA ID 2401420
    Abandoned
  6. Clark Brothers Universal #1
    Surface metal/non-metal · Clark Brothers Contractors · MSHA ID 2401548
    Abandoned
  7. CLARKE PIT
    Surface metal/non-metal · R B C · MSHA ID 2402223
    Abandoned
  8. CR 1
    Surface metal/non-metal · J5 Construction · MSHA ID 2402530
    Abandoned
  9. CRUSHER
    Surface metal/non-metal · John Schlecht Excavating · MSHA ID 2402154
    Abandoned
  10. Crystal Mountain And Darby Mill
    Surface metal/non-metal · Roberts Mining Co · MSHA ID 2400144
    Abandoned
  11. DBRM PIT - NORTH
    Surface metal/non-metal · Donaldson Bros. Ready Mix, INC. · MSHA ID 2402764
    Abandoned
  12. DBRM Pit - South
    Surface metal/non-metal · Knife River dba JTL Group · MSHA ID 2400793
    Abandoned
  13. Farmers Plant Aid
    Surface metal/non-metal · Farmers Plant Aid Corp · MSHA ID 2400922
    Abandoned
  14. Harris Sand & Gravel
    Surface metal/non-metal · Harris Enterprises LLP · MSHA ID 2402367
    Abandoned
  15. Huges Creek
    Surface metal/non-metal · Alpine Energy Inc · MSHA ID 2401703
    Abandoned
  16. Little Grizzly
    Surface metal/non-metal · J5 Construction Inc · MSHA ID 2402412
    Abandoned
  17. Mc Gee Pit
    Surface metal/non-metal · Mc Gee Sand & Gravel · MSHA ID 2401773
    Abandoned
  18. Moudy Pit
    Surface metal/non-metal · Western Montana Excavation LLc · MSHA ID 2402752
    Abandoned
  19. Mountain View Gravel Pit/Morten Pit
    Surface metal/non-metal · Advanced Earthworks Inc · MSHA ID 2402565
    Abandoned
  20. Palmen Sand & Gravel Pit
    Surface metal/non-metal · Palmen Sand & Gravel · MSHA ID 2401301
    Abandoned
  21. Portable 36
    Surface metal/non-metal · Rock It Crushing LLC · MSHA ID 2402802
    Abandoned
  22. Portable Crusher
    Surface metal/non-metal · Rock It Crushing LLC · MSHA ID 2402151
    Abandoned
  23. PORTABLE CRUSHER
    Surface metal/non-metal · Ronald Lewis · MSHA ID 2402156
    Abandoned
  24. Ravalli County Crusher
    Surface metal/non-metal · Ravalli County · MSHA ID 2401302
    Abandoned
  25. Rye Creek Mine
    Facility metal/non-metal · Rye Creek LLC · MSHA ID 2402602
    Abandoned
  26. SAPPHIRE PRE MIX
    Surface metal/non-metal · Sapphire Pre Mix Inc · MSHA ID 2401901
    Abandoned
  27. Screen
    Surface metal/non-metal · Mobile Rock Crushing LLC · MSHA ID 2402788
    Abandoned
  28. Screening Plant #1
    Surface metal/non-metal · Bitterroot Rock Products · MSHA ID 2402270
    Abandoned
  29. SPERRY DISCOUNT GRAVEL
    Surface metal/non-metal · Sperry Discount Gravel · MSHA ID 2402148
    Abandoned
  30. Stewart Excavating Inc.
    Surface metal/non-metal · Stewart Excavating Inc · MSHA ID 2402117
    Abandoned
  31. T&T PORTABLE CRUSHER
    Surface metal/non-metal · T & T Sand & Gravel · MSHA ID 2402167
    Abandoned
  32. The Curley
    Surface metal/non-metal · Montana Mountain Mining Inc · MSHA ID 2401596
    Abandoned
  33. Western Vermiculite Mine
    Surface metal/non-metal · Argee Corp · MSHA ID 2401442
    Abandoned
  34. Wolfe Mine
    Surface metal/non-metal · Lehman Mining Company · MSHA ID 2401672
    Abandoned
  35. Woods Creek Mine
    Underground metal/non-metal · Stronghold Resources Inc · MSHA ID 2401928
    Abandoned
  36. Woodside Pit And Plant
    Surface metal/non-metal · A B Concrete · MSHA ID 2400787
    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
Prospect Pit 155
Gravel Pit 45
Adit 20
Mine Shaft 17
Gravel Pit 16
Open Pit Mine 10
Placer Mine 5
Open Pit Mine or Quarry 5
Clay Pit 4
Tailings - Undifferentiated 4
P2 Dangerous Piles & Embankments 3
Quarry 2
P2 Vertical Openings 2
P2 Dangerous Highwalls 1
P2 Portals 1
P2 Hazardous Equip & Facilities 1
Mine 1
P2 Hazardous Water Bodies 1
Gravel/Borrow Pit - Undifferentiated 1
P2 Industrial/Residential Waste 1
Other counties in MontanaAll 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.