Abandoned mines in Morrill County, Nebraska
Morrill County, Nebraska has 22 mine and prospect features on USGS topographic maps published 1965–1979. MSHA's register carries 18 mines in the county with status Abandoned or Abandoned and Sealed.
Every mine and prospect feature the USGS digitized from historical topographic maps covering Morrill 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)
- 22
- Mine openings
- 0
- OSMRE problems unreclaimed
- 0
- MSHA mines marked abandoned
- 18
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22 100.0%Quarries, gravel and borrow pitsconstruction-material and industrial-mineral extraction
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#403Abandoned 1999-09-07Surface metal/non-metal · Kembel Sand & Gravel Company · MSHA ID 2501102
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Alex Schmunk PitAbandoned 1988-06-22Surface metal/non-metal · Kembel Sand & Gravel Company · MSHA ID 2501069
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BALZER PITAbandoned 1997-07-21Surface metal/non-metal · Wolfe Sand & Gravel · MSHA ID 2501159
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Bayard PitAbandoned 1983-11-03Surface metal/non-metal · Gayman Sand & Gravel · MSHA ID 2500992
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BroadwaterAbandoned 1983-11-03Surface metal/non-metal · Whitney Sand & Gravel Inc · MSHA ID 2500959
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Broadwater Pit And PlantAbandoned 1984-08-17Surface metal/non-metal · Gayman Sand & Gravel · MSHA ID 2500892
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CR 332Abandoned 2010-12-17Surface metal/non-metal · Rock Express Inc · MSHA ID 2501215
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D & R Gravel PitAbandoned 1986-06-05Surface metal/non-metal · D & R Gravel · MSHA ID 2500975
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Dudden Gravel & Rock ProductsAbandoned 2007-08-22Surface metal/non-metal · Dudden Gravel & Rock Products · MSHA ID 2501176
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Dudden Redi-Mix Pit And PlantAbandoned 1983-11-28Surface metal/non-metal · Dudden Redi-Mix Concrete · MSHA ID 2500610
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Dudden Sand & GravelAbandoned 1995-09-20Surface metal/non-metal · Dudden Redi-Mix Inc · MSHA ID 2501162
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DUDDEN SAND & GRAVEL INCAbandoned 2004-06-04Surface metal/non-metal · Dudden Redi-Mix Inc · MSHA ID 2500437
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DUDDEN SAND & GRAVEL INCAbandoned 2000-05-05Surface metal/non-metal · Dudden Redi-Mix Inc · MSHA ID 2500696
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Lake WannabeAbandoned 2014-02-14Surface metal/non-metal · PJ Sand & Gravel LLC · MSHA ID 2501277
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Plant #23 BridgeportAbandoned 1986-06-05Surface metal/non-metal · Lyman-Richey Sand & Gravel Company · MSHA ID 2500281
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RIGGS #1Abandoned 2001-12-06Surface metal/non-metal · Morrill County Redi-Mix · MSHA ID 2501179
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Schmunk GravelAbandoned 2006-02-15Surface metal/non-metal · Schmunk Gravel · MSHA ID 2501003
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Wolfe Sand & Gravel Pit #2Abandoned 1983-11-02Surface metal/non-metal · Wolfe Sand & Gravel · MSHA ID 2500953
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 |
|---|---|
| Gravel Pit | 19 |
| Sand Pit | 2 |
| Gravel 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.