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Abandoned mines › North Dakota
Abandoned mine inventory

Abandoned mines in Stark County, North Dakota

Stark County, North Dakota has 137 mine and prospect features on USGS topographic maps published 1959–1982, including 1 mine openings (shafts, adits and air shafts); 3 of the features carry a name on the map. OSMRE's abandoned mine land inventory lists 30 problems in the county, 15 of them not yet reclaimed. MSHA's register carries 23 mines in the county with status Abandoned or Abandoned and Sealed.

Every mine and prospect feature the USGS digitized from historical topographic maps covering Stark 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)
137
Mine openings
1
OSMRE problems unreclaimed
15
MSHA mines marked abandoned
23
3 features carry a name0 prospect pits24 quadrangle maps, published 1959–1982 30 OSMRE problems, 15 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
    6 3.6%
  2. Mines and surface workings
    labelled mines, open pits, strip mines, placer and hydraulic workings
    41 24.6%
  3. Quarries, gravel and borrow pits
    construction-material and industrial-mineral extraction
    95 56.9%
  4. Dumps, tailings, spoil and gob
    what mining left above ground
    5 3.0%
  5. Mills, tipples and facilities
    processing plants and hazardous structures
    1 0.6%
  6. Other reclamation problems
    highwalls, subsidence, polluted or clogged water, fires, slides and gases in OSMRE's inventory
    19 11.4%
Named features on the maps3 named · from the USGS compilation
Name on map Feature
Karsky Mine Open Pit Mine area
Ridl Mine Open Pit Mine area
Walters Mine Open Pit Mine area

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 problems30 on inventory
Problem area Problem Status
Abbey A,b P2 Dangerous Highwalls Reclamation Pending
Abbey A,b P2 Portals Reclamation Completed
Abbey A,b P2 Subsidence In Reclamation
Abbey A,b P2 Vertical Openings Reclamation Completed
Abbey A,b P3 Spoil Area In Reclamation
Binek B,c,d,e,h P1 Dangerous Highwalls Reclamation Completed
Binek B,c,d,e,h P1 Dangerous Slides Reclamation Completed
Binek B,c,d,e,h P1 Subsidence Reclamation Completed
Binek B,c,d,e,h P1 Vertical Openings Reclamation Completed
Binek B,c,d,e,h P2 Dangerous Highwalls Reclamation Completed
Binek B,c,d,e,h P2 Subsidence In Reclamation
Binek B,c,d,e,h P2 Vertical Openings Reclamation Completed
Ehlis P2 Dangerous Highwalls In Reclamation
Frank A,b P2 Dangerous Highwalls Reclamation Completed
Frank A,b P2 Dangerous Piles & Embankments Reclamation Completed
Frank A,b P2 Polluted Water: Agricultural & Industrial Reclamation Completed
Nd - Stark - Fea P1 Subsidence Reclamation Completed
New Hradec P2 Dangerous Highwalls Reclamation Pending
New Hradec P2 Subsidence Reclamation Pending
New Hradec P3 Spoil Area In Reclamation
Southwest Hebron P2 Dangerous Highwalls Reclamation Pending
Southwest Hebron P2 Subsidence In Reclamation
Southwest Hebron P3 Spoil Area In Reclamation
Walters P2 Dangerous Highwalls In Reclamation
Walters P2 Hazardous Equip & Facilities Reclamation Completed
Walters P2 Hazardous Water Bodies Reclamation Completed
Walters P3 Spoil Area In Reclamation
West Dickinson P2 Dangerous Highwalls In Reclamation
Zenith P2 Subsidence In Reclamation
Zenith P2 Vertical Openings Reclamation Completed

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 Abandoned23 on register
  1. Badinger Pit & Plant
    Surface metal/non-metal · Badinger Sand & Gravel · MSHA ID 3200134
    Abandoned
  2. Badinger'S Portable Washer
    Surface metal/non-metal · Badinger Sand & Gravel · MSHA ID 3200135
    Abandoned
  3. Concrete Products Plant
    Surface metal/non-metal · Fisher Sand & Gravel Company · MSHA ID 3200642
    Abandoned
  4. Dickinson Strip
    Surface coal · Dickinson Coal Mining Company · MSHA ID 3200034
    Abandoned
  5. Fisher Industries Plant 22
    Surface metal/non-metal · Fisher Industries · MSHA ID 2102752
    Abandoned
  6. Fisher Industries Plant 30
    Surface metal/non-metal · Fisher Sand & Gravel Company · MSHA ID 3901224
    Abandoned
  7. Fisher Industries Plant 31
    Surface metal/non-metal · Fisher Sand & Gravel Company · MSHA ID 3901398
    Abandoned
  8. Fisher Industries Plant 4
    Surface metal/non-metal · Fisher Sand & Gravel Company · MSHA ID 3200507
    Abandoned
  9. Fisher Industries Plant 44
    Surface metal/non-metal · Fisher Sand & Gravel Company · MSHA ID 3201024
    Abandoned
  10. George'S Crusher
    Surface metal/non-metal · Badinger Sand & Gravel · MSHA ID 3200646
    Abandoned
  11. Hild Pit 1 & 2
    Surface metal/non-metal · Pinnacle Materials, Inc. · MSHA ID 3200921
    Abandoned
  12. J K Ranch
    Surface coal · Royal Oak Enterprises Inc · MSHA ID 3200035
    Abandoned
  13. Jerry'S Crusher
    Surface metal/non-metal · Badinger Sand & Gravel · MSHA ID 3200597
    Abandoned
  14. Lange-Hensler Pits
    Surface metal/non-metal · Fisher Sand & Gravel Company · MSHA ID 3200295
    Abandoned
  15. Martin Mine
    Surface metal/non-metal · Martin Construction Inc · MSHA ID 3200832
    Abandoned
  16. Martin Mine # 2
    Surface metal/non-metal · Martin Construction Inc. · MSHA ID 3201016
    Abandoned
  17. Pipkin #1
    Surface metal/non-metal · Pipkin Goodfellow Venture LLC · MSHA ID 3200984
    Abandoned
  18. Plant 1
    Surface metal/non-metal · Meyer Aggregate LLC · MSHA ID 3200862
    Abandoned
  19. Richards
    Surface metal/non-metal · Pinnacle Material · MSHA ID 3200932
    Abandoned
  20. South Heart Lignite Mine
    Surface coal · South Heart Coal LLC · MSHA ID 3200905
    Abandoned
  21. Thompson Pit
    Surface metal/non-metal · Pinnacle Materials LLC · MSHA ID 3200920
    Abandoned
  22. two mile
    Surface metal/non-metal · Allied Resources LLC · MSHA ID 3201061
    Abandoned
  23. Walter Strip
    Surface coal · Walters Coal Mine · MSHA ID 3200036
    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 48
Gravel Pit 22
Scoria Pit 18
Disturbed Surface - Pit 10
Open Pit Mine 10
Strip Mine 9
P2 Dangerous Highwalls 8
Open Pit Mine 6
Disturbed Surface 6
P2 Subsidence 5
P3 Spoil Area 4
P2 Vertical Openings 3
P1 Subsidence 2
Clay Pit 2
Gravel/Borrow Pit - Undifferentiated 2
Adit 1
P2 Hazardous Equip & Facilities 1
P2 Hazardous Water Bodies 1
P2 Portals 1
P2 Dangerous Piles & Embankments 1
Quarry 1
Scoria Pit 1
P2 Polluted Water: Agricultural & Industrial 1
Sand Pit 1
P1 Dangerous Slides 1
P1 Dangerous Highwalls 1
P1 Vertical Openings 1
Other counties in North DakotaAll 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.