Abandoned mines in Butler County, Ohio
Butler County, Ohio has 83 mine and prospect features on USGS topographic maps published 1955–1988. MSHA's register carries 20 mines in the county with status Abandoned or Abandoned and Sealed.
Every mine and prospect feature the USGS digitized from historical topographic maps covering Butler 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)
- 83
- Mine openings
- 0
- OSMRE problems unreclaimed
- 0
- MSHA mines marked abandoned
- 20
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19 22.9%Mines and surface workingslabelled mines, open pits, strip mines, placer and hydraulic workings
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64 77.1%Quarries, gravel and borrow pitsconstruction-material and industrial-mineral extraction
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Aggregate Services IncorporatedAbandoned 1989-09-27Surface metal/non-metal · Aggregate Services Inc · MSHA ID 3303820
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Brunk Excavating IncAbandoned 2017-08-02Surface metal/non-metal · Brunk Excavating Inc. · MSHA ID 3304604
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COLWELL GRAVEL CO.Abandoned 2001-06-05Surface metal/non-metal · Colwell Gravel Company · MSHA ID 3304431
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DRAKES EX.Abandoned 2003-08-25Surface metal/non-metal · Drakes Excavating · MSHA ID 3304259
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Eagle Materials LLC DBA Ernst AggPlant 6Abandoned 2012-12-11Surface metal/non-metal · Ernst Aggregates · MSHA ID 3301567
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Fairfield PlantAbandoned 1985-08-14Surface metal/non-metal · Dravo Basic Materials Company Inc · MSHA ID 3301589
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Fraley AggregatesAbandoned 2014-10-07Surface metal/non-metal · Glenn W Fraley & Sons Excavating Incorporated · MSHA ID 3304265
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Hamilton City PlantAbandoned 2026-04-06Surface metal/non-metal · Welch Sand & Gravel Inc · MSHA ID 3304536
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Hamilton GravelAbandoned 2007-02-15Surface metal/non-metal · Martin Marietta Materials, Inc. · MSHA ID 3301394
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Indian Creek Sand & GravelAbandoned 2007-04-03Surface metal/non-metal · Indian Creek Sand & Gravel · MSHA ID 3304128
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Indian Creek Sand And GravelAbandoned 1985-06-05Surface metal/non-metal · Bowling Construction Company · MSHA ID 3301521
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Mecco IncorporatedAbandoned 1991-03-04Surface metal/non-metal · Mecco Inc · MSHA ID 3301400
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N & S Sand & GravelAbandoned 2007-05-31Surface metal/non-metal · N & S Sand & Gravel · MSHA ID 3303860
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Poast TownAbandoned 2012-12-11Surface metal/non-metal · Watson Gravel Inc. · MSHA ID 3304634
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Portable Plant #3-183 (Ohio Recycling)Abandoned 2012-10-01Surface metal/non-metal · Martin Marietta Materials · MSHA ID 3304394
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Rapier Sand & Gravel IncorporatedAbandoned 1994-03-24Surface metal/non-metal · Rapier Sand & Gravel Inc · MSHA ID 3303684
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Ross GravelAbandoned 2014-08-18Surface metal/non-metal · Martin Marietta Materials,Inc. · MSHA ID 3301587
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Ross PlantAbandoned 2011-01-07Surface metal/non-metal · Alvis Landscape and Golf Course Materials Inc · MSHA ID 3304554
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Ross PlantAbandoned 2014-09-10Surface metal/non-metal · Broshear Contractors, Inc. · MSHA ID 3304555
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Schlichter/Hamilton PitAbandoned 2013-09-24Surface metal/non-metal · Welch Sand & Gravel Inc. · MSHA ID 3301640
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 | 30 |
| Gravel Pit | 27 |
| Disturbed Surface | 18 |
| Gravel/Borrow Pit - Undifferentiated | 6 |
| Quarry | 1 |
| Open Pit Mine or Quarry | 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.