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Abandoned mines › Texas
Abandoned mine inventory

Abandoned mines in Karnes County, Texas

Karnes County, Texas has 218 mine and prospect features on USGS topographic maps published 1936–1987. OSMRE's abandoned mine land inventory lists 67 problems in the county, 8 of them not yet reclaimed. MSHA's register carries 12 mines in the county with status Abandoned or Abandoned and Sealed.

Every mine and prospect feature the USGS digitized from historical topographic maps covering Karnes 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)
218
Mine openings
0
OSMRE problems unreclaimed
8
MSHA mines marked abandoned
12
0 features carry a name0 prospect pits19 quadrangle maps, published 1936–1987 67 OSMRE problems, 59 reclaimed 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
    42 14.7%
  2. Quarries, gravel and borrow pits
    construction-material and industrial-mineral extraction
    163 57.2%
  3. Dumps, tailings, spoil and gob
    what mining left above ground
    31 10.9%
  4. Other reclamation problems
    highwalls, subsidence, polluted or clogged water, fires, slides and gases in OSMRE's inventory
    49 17.2%
OSMRE abandoned mine land problems67 on inventory
Problem area Problem Status
Bargmann P2 Dangerous Highwalls Reclamation Completed
Bargmann P2 Dangerous Piles & Embankments Reclamation Completed
Bargmann P3 Other Reclamation Completed
Brown P2 Dangerous Highwalls Reclamation Completed
Brown P2 Dangerous Piles & Embankments Reclamation Completed
Brown P2 Hazardous Water Bodies Reclamation Completed
Brown P3 Other Reclamation Completed
Bulter-Weddington Area 3 P2 Dangerous Highwalls Reclamation Completed
Bulter-Weddington Area 3 P2 Dangerous Piles & Embankments Reclamation Completed
Bulter-Weddington Area 3 P2 Hazardous Water Bodies Reclamation Completed
Bulter-Weddington Area 3 P3 Other Reclamation Completed
Butler-Weddington Area 1 P2 Dangerous Highwalls Reclamation Completed
Butler-Weddington Area 1 P2 Dangerous Piles & Embankments Reclamation Completed
Butler-Weddington Area 1 P2 Hazardous Water Bodies Reclamation Completed
Butler-Weddington Area 1 P3 Other Reclamation Completed
Butler-Weddington Area 2A P2 Dangerous Highwalls Reclamation Completed
Butler-Weddington Area 2A P2 Dangerous Piles & Embankments Reclamation Completed
Butler-Weddington Area 2A P2 Hazardous Water Bodies Reclamation Completed
Butler-Weddington Area 2A P3 Other Reclamation Completed
Butler-Weddington Area 2B P2 Dangerous Highwalls Reclamation Completed
Butler-Weddington Area 2B P2 Dangerous Piles & Embankments Reclamation Completed
Butler-Weddington Area 2B P2 Hazardous Water Bodies Reclamation Completed
Butler-Weddington Area 2B P3 Other Reclamation Completed
Butler-Weddington Area 4 P2 Dangerous Highwalls Reclamation Completed
Butler-Weddington Area 4 P2 Dangerous Piles & Embankments Reclamation Completed
Butler-Weddington Area 4 P2 Hazardous Water Bodies Reclamation Completed
Butler-Weddington Area 4 P3 Other Reclamation Completed
Butler-Weddington Area 6 P2 Dangerous Highwalls Reclamation Completed
Butler-Weddington Area 6 P2 Dangerous Piles & Embankments Reclamation Completed
Butler-Weddington Area 6 P2 Hazardous Water Bodies Reclamation Completed
Butler-Weddington Area 6 P3 Other Reclamation Completed
Galen P2 Dangerous Highwalls Reclamation Completed
Galen P3 Other Reclamation Completed
Galen P3 Spoil Area Reclamation Completed
Haase P2 Dangerous Highwalls Reclamation Pending
Haase P2 Dangerous Piles & Embankments Reclamation Pending
Haase P2 Hazardous Water Bodies Reclamation Pending
Haase P3 Other Reclamation Pending
Hackney P2 Dangerous Piles & Embankments Reclamation Completed
I.M. Brysch P2 Dangerous Piles & Embankments Reclamation Completed
I.M. Brysch P2 Hazardous Water Bodies Reclamation Completed
I.M. Brysch P3 High Wall Reclamation Completed
I.M. Brysch P3 Other Reclamation Completed
Manka P2 Dangerous Highwalls Reclamation Completed
Manka P2 Dangerous Piles & Embankments Reclamation Completed
Manka P2 Hazardous Water Bodies Reclamation Completed
Manka P3 Other Reclamation Completed
McCrady P2 Dangerous Piles & Embankments Reclamation Pending
McCrady P2 Hazardous Water Bodies Reclamation Pending
McCrady P3 High Wall Reclamation Pending
McCrady P3 Other Reclamation Pending
Searcy P2 Dangerous Highwalls Reclamation Completed
Searcy P2 Dangerous Piles & Embankments Reclamation Completed
Searcy P2 Hazardous Water Bodies Reclamation Completed
Searcy P3 Other Reclamation Completed
Sickenius P2 Dangerous Highwalls Reclamation Completed
Sickenius P2 Dangerous Piles & Embankments Reclamation Completed
Sickenius P2 Hazardous Water Bodies Reclamation Completed
Sickenius P3 Other Reclamation Completed
Stoeltje P2 Dangerous Highwalls Reclamation Completed
Stoeltje P2 Dangerous Piles & Embankments Reclamation Completed
Stoeltje P2 Hazardous Water Bodies Reclamation Completed
Stoeltje P3 Other Reclamation Completed
Weddington North P2 Dangerous Highwalls Reclamation Completed
Weddington North P2 Dangerous Piles & Embankments Reclamation Completed
Weddington North P2 Hazardous Water Bodies Reclamation Completed
Weddington North P3 Other 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 Abandoned12 on register
  1. Brazil Pit
    Surface metal/non-metal · Dahlstrom Corp · MSHA ID 4102815
    Abandoned
  2. Conquista Mill
    Facility metal/non-metal · Conoco Inc · MSHA ID 4101796
    Abandoned
  3. Dixon Underground Mine
    Underground metal/non-metal · Conoco Inc · MSHA ID 4102789
    Abandoned
  4. E Labus Mine
    Underground metal/non-metal · R H Gunn Mine Development · MSHA ID 4102920
    Abandoned
  5. Falls City Pit
    Surface metal/non-metal · Custom Crushed Stone · MSHA ID 4104838
    Abandoned
  6. Falls City Plant
    Facility metal/non-metal · Solution Engineering Inc · MSHA ID 4102814
    Abandoned
  7. HODSON URANIUM PROJECT
    Facility metal/non-metal · Everest Exploration Inc · MSHA ID 4102913
    Abandoned
  8. Karnes County Pits
    Surface metal/non-metal · Conoco Inc · MSHA ID 4102494
    Abandoned
  9. Laskowski Pit
    Surface metal/non-metal · Sanstone Materials Inc · MSHA ID 4102611
    Abandoned
  10. Panna Maria Uranium Operations
    Facility metal/non-metal · Chevron Resources Company · MSHA ID 4102746
    Abandoned
  11. Pawelekville Quarry
    Surface metal/non-metal · M & M Crushed Stone Products, Inc. · MSHA ID 4104935
    Abandoned
  12. Portable Crusher #2
    Surface metal/non-metal · South Texas Construction Company · MSHA ID 4103061
    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
Quarry 53
Quarry 49
Disturbed Surface 33
Gravel Pit 32
Gravel Pit 24
P3 Other 17
P2 Dangerous Piles & Embankments 17
P2 Dangerous Highwalls 15
P2 Hazardous Water Bodies 15
Tailings - Undifferentiated 8
Open Pit Mine 6
Tailings - Pond 5
Gravel/Borrow Pit - Undifferentiated 4
Open Pit Mine or Quarry 3
P3 High Wall 2
Borrow Pit 1
P3 Spoil Area 1
Other counties in TexasAll 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.