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Abandoned mines › South Dakota
Abandoned mine inventory

Abandoned mines in Minnehaha County, South Dakota

Minnehaha County, South Dakota has 109 mine and prospect features on USGS topographic maps published 1962–1976. MSHA's register carries 47 mines in the county with status Abandoned or Abandoned and Sealed.

Every mine and prospect feature the USGS digitized from historical topographic maps covering Minnehaha 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)
109
Mine openings
0
OSMRE problems unreclaimed
0
MSHA mines marked abandoned
47
0 features carry a name0 prospect pits15 quadrangle maps, published 1962–1976 0 MSHA mines abandoned and sealed
What the features are
  1. Mines and surface workings
    labelled mines, open pits, strip mines, placer and hydraulic workings
    21 19.3%
  2. Quarries, gravel and borrow pits
    construction-material and industrial-mineral extraction
    87 79.8%
  3. Dumps, tailings, spoil and gob
    what mining left above ground
    1 0.9%
MSHA-registered mines with status Abandoned47 on register
  1. Allis 45
    Surface metal/non-metal · Myrl & Roys Paving Inc · MSHA ID 3901332
    Abandoned
  2. Asco Pit
    Surface metal/non-metal · Asphalt Surfacing Company · MSHA ID 3901679
    Abandoned
  3. Beckman Sand & Gravel Pit #2
    Surface metal/non-metal · Asphalt Surfacing Company · MSHA ID 3900858
    Abandoned
  4. Borgen Sand And Gravel Pit No 1
    Surface metal/non-metal · Borgen Gravel · MSHA ID 3900711
    Abandoned
  5. Brandon Materials Company
    Surface metal/non-metal · Brandon Materials Company · MSHA ID 3900441
    Abandoned
  6. Bruns Gravel Pit
    Surface metal/non-metal · Hagen Rock & Gravel Company · MSHA ID 3900442
    Abandoned
  7. C & W Crushing Plant #1
    Surface metal/non-metal · C & W Enterprises Inc · MSHA ID 3901452
    Abandoned
  8. Commander Crusher
    Surface metal/non-metal · Myrl & Roys Paving Inc · MSHA ID 3900525
    Abandoned
  9. Concrete Dakota Pit
    Surface metal/non-metal · Dave Gustafson & Company Inc · MSHA ID 3900669
    Abandoned
  10. Crusher Unit 403 Or Unit #403
    Surface metal/non-metal · Reynolds Construction Company · MSHA ID 3901139
    Abandoned
  11. Dakota-CP6
    Surface metal/non-metal · Dakota Road Builders Inc · MSHA ID 3901442
    Abandoned
  12. Dakota-CP7
    Surface metal/non-metal · Dakota Road Builders Inc. · MSHA ID 3901476
    Abandoned
  13. East Pit
    Surface metal/non-metal · City Of Sioux Falls Street Department · MSHA ID 3900709
    Abandoned
  14. East-West Pit & Mill
    Surface metal/non-metal · Friessen Construction Company Inc · MSHA ID 3900922
    Abandoned
  15. Ellis Pit
    Surface metal/non-metal · L G Everist Inc · MSHA ID 3900831
    Abandoned
  16. Foster Pit
    Surface metal/non-metal · Hagen Grading Company · MSHA ID 3901443
    Abandoned
  17. Friessen Terry Pit
    Surface metal/non-metal · Friessen Construction Company Inc · MSHA ID 3900921
    Abandoned
  18. Gustafson Pit & Mill No 1 Or Crusher No
    Surface metal/non-metal · Dave Gustafson & Company Inc · MSHA ID 3901091
    Abandoned
  19. Higman Sand & Gravel
    Surface metal/non-metal · Higman Sand & Gravel Inc · MSHA ID 3901311
    Abandoned
  20. Kolberg Screener
    Surface metal/non-metal · Myrl & Roys Paving Inc · MSHA ID 3900526
    Abandoned
  21. Leo Lowe Pit
    Surface metal/non-metal · Bob Denherder Construction · MSHA ID 3901138
    Abandoned
  22. Loewenberg Pit
    Surface metal/non-metal · Bob Menning Operator · MSHA ID 3901088
    Abandoned
  23. Nelson Mine
    Surface metal/non-metal · L.G. Everist, Inc. · MSHA ID 3901307
    Abandoned
  24. Person Pit
    Surface metal/non-metal · JAG Crushing LLC · MSHA ID 3901686
    Abandoned
  25. Pioneer Jaw
    Surface metal/non-metal · Myrl & Roys Paving Inc · MSHA ID 3901331
    Abandoned
  26. Plant #1
    Surface metal/non-metal · Dakota Earthworks Inc · MSHA ID 3901436
    Abandoned
  27. Plant #2
    Surface metal/non-metal · Dakota Earthworks Inc · MSHA ID 3901456
    Abandoned
  28. Plant #3
    Surface metal/non-metal · Dakota Earthworks Inc · MSHA ID 3901507
    Abandoned
  29. Plant #4
    Surface metal/non-metal · Dakota Earthworks · MSHA ID 3901508
    Abandoned
  30. Portable Rock Plant #1-S D
    Surface metal/non-metal · Martin Marietta Aggregates · MSHA ID 3901346
    Abandoned
  31. Read Screen
    Surface metal/non-metal · Concrete Materials Company · MSHA ID 3901496
    Abandoned
  32. Reynolds-Gustafson Pit
    Surface metal/non-metal · Dakota Rock & Gravel, Inc. · MSHA ID 3901569
    Abandoned
  33. Rice Street Sandplant
    Surface metal/non-metal · Concrete Materials-Div/Sweetman Construction Co · MSHA ID 3900225
    Abandoned
  34. Rupp 1
    Surface metal/non-metal · Dakota Road Builders Inc · MSHA ID 3901189
    Abandoned
  35. Schenk Crushing
    Surface metal/non-metal · Schenk Construction · MSHA ID 3901606
    Abandoned
  36. Scholten Pit
    Surface metal/non-metal · Robert Den Herder · MSHA ID 3901063
    Abandoned
  37. Screener
    Surface metal/non-metal · Lowe Sand and Gravel · MSHA ID 3901461
    Abandoned
  38. SCREENING UNIT NO 1
    Surface metal/non-metal · Hagen Rock & Gravel Company · MSHA ID 3901386
    Abandoned
  39. SCREENING UNIT NO 2
    Surface metal/non-metal · Hagen Rock & Gravel Company · MSHA ID 3901364
    Abandoned
  40. Sioux Falls Construction Company
    Surface metal/non-metal · Sioux Falls Construction Company · MSHA ID 3901358
    Abandoned
  41. Sioux Falls Gravel Pit
    Surface metal/non-metal · City Of Sioux Falls · MSHA ID 3900954
    Abandoned
  42. Soukup Construction Incorporated
    Surface metal/non-metal · Soukup Construction Inc · MSHA ID 3901333
    Abandoned
  43. Stone Hill Excavation
    Surface metal/non-metal · Stone Hill Excavation, LLC · MSHA ID 3901682
    Abandoned
  44. Weber Pit
    Surface metal/non-metal · J L Healy Construction Company · MSHA ID 3901179
    Abandoned
  45. West Sand And Gravel Pit
    Surface metal/non-metal · Minnehaha County Highway Dept · MSHA ID 3900835
    Abandoned
  46. West Sioux
    Surface metal/non-metal · L.G. Everist, Inc. · MSHA ID 3901207
    Abandoned
  47. ZACHARIAS CONSTRUCTION
    Surface metal/non-metal · ZACHARIAS CONSTRUCTION · MSHA ID 3901468
    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 42
Gravel Pit 32
Disturbed Surface - Pit 20
Quarry 9
Quarry 4
Disturbed Surface 1
Tailings - Pond 1
Other counties in South 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.