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Abandoned mines › Washington
Abandoned mine inventory

Abandoned mines in Mason County, Washington

Mason County, Washington has 130 mine and prospect features on USGS topographic maps published 1943–1997; 2 of the features carry a name on the map. OSMRE's abandoned mine land inventory lists 1 problems in the county, all of them reclaimed. MSHA's register carries 46 mines in the county with status Abandoned or Abandoned and Sealed.

Every mine and prospect feature the USGS digitized from historical topographic maps covering Mason 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)
130
Mine openings
0
OSMRE problems unreclaimed
0
MSHA mines marked abandoned
46
2 features carry a name0 prospect pits26 quadrangle maps, published 1943–1997 1 OSMRE problems, 1 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
    4 3.1%
  2. Quarries, gravel and borrow pits
    construction-material and industrial-mineral extraction
    125 95.4%
  3. Dumps, tailings, spoil and gob
    what mining left above ground
    1 0.8%
  4. Other reclamation problems
    highwalls, subsidence, polluted or clogged water, fires, slides and gases in OSMRE's inventory
    1 0.8%
Named features on the maps2 named · from the USGS compilation
Name on map Feature
Darky Mine Open Pit Mine
Darky Mine Open Pit Mine

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 problems1 on inventory
Problem area Problem Status
Wa - Lewis - Fea 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 Abandoned46 on register
  1. 1250 Road Quarry
    Surface metal/non-metal · Simpson Timber Company · MSHA ID 4501771
    Abandoned
  2. 2357-0 5 Quarry
    Surface metal/non-metal · U S Forest Service · MSHA ID 4501510
    Abandoned
  3. 2401-6 0 Pit
    Surface metal/non-metal · U S Forest Service · MSHA ID 4501514
    Abandoned
  4. 245-1 5 Pit
    Surface metal/non-metal · U S Forest Service · MSHA ID 4501513
    Abandoned
  5. 245-15 0 Quarry
    Surface metal/non-metal · U S Forest Service · MSHA ID 4501511
    Abandoned
  6. 245-7 5 Pit
    Surface metal/non-metal · Puget Sound Surfacers Inc · MSHA ID 4501512
    Abandoned
  7. 249-7 0 Quarry
    Surface metal/non-metal · Delhur Inc · MSHA ID 4501515
    Abandoned
  8. 2515-1 5 Pit
    Surface metal/non-metal · U S Forest Service · MSHA ID 4501517
    Abandoned
  9. 2621-0 1 Quarry
    Surface metal/non-metal · U S Forest Service · MSHA ID 4501518
    Abandoned
  10. 2621-1 2 Quarry
    Surface metal/non-metal · U S Forest Service · MSHA ID 4501519
    Abandoned
  11. 3358 Pit
    Surface metal/non-metal · Simpson Timber Company · MSHA ID 4501776
    Abandoned
  12. 600 Road Quarry
    Surface metal/non-metal · Simpson Timber Company · MSHA ID 4501775
    Abandoned
  13. 620 Road Quarry
    Surface metal/non-metal · Simpson Timber Company · MSHA ID 4501774
    Abandoned
  14. 806 Road Quarry
    Surface metal/non-metal · Simpson Timber Company · MSHA ID 4501772
    Abandoned
  15. 831 Road Quarry
    Surface metal/non-metal · Simpson Timber Company · MSHA ID 4501773
    Abandoned
  16. ALLEN SHEARER SAND & GRAVEL LLC
    Surface metal/non-metal · Allen Shearer Sand & Gravel Llc · MSHA ID 4503003
    Abandoned
  17. Army Quarry
    Surface metal/non-metal · Simpson Timber Company · MSHA ID 4501777
    Abandoned
  18. Belair North Shore Pit
    Surface metal/non-metal · Ace Paving Company Inc · MSHA ID 4502765
    Abandoned
  19. Canal Pit
    Surface metal/non-metal · J D Shotwell Company · MSHA ID 4502328
    Abandoned
  20. Central Shop Pit
    Surface metal/non-metal · Mason County Road Department · MSHA ID 4502463
    Abandoned
  21. Dayton Peak Quarry
    Surface metal/non-metal · Simpson Timber Company · MSHA ID 4501788
    Abandoned
  22. Decker Creek Pit
    Surface metal/non-metal · Northwest Rock, Inc. · MSHA ID 4503644
    Abandoned
  23. Evergreen Materials
    Surface metal/non-metal · Evergreen Materials Inc · MSHA ID 4502507
    Abandoned
  24. Franklin Pit
    Surface metal/non-metal · Simpson Timber Company · MSHA ID 4501786
    Abandoned
  25. Institution Pit
    Surface metal/non-metal · Simpson Timber Company · MSHA ID 4501785
    Abandoned
  26. Jaw Crusher
    Surface metal/non-metal · Green Diamond Resource Company · MSHA ID 4503844
    Abandoned
  27. Kamilche Quarry
    Surface metal/non-metal · Simpson Timber Company · MSHA ID 4501783
    Abandoned
  28. Kuhnle Pit
    Surface metal/non-metal · Simpson Timber Company · MSHA ID 4501798
    Abandoned
  29. Liboki Pit
    Surface metal/non-metal · Simpson Timber Company · MSHA ID 4501784
    Abandoned
  30. Lost Lake Pit
    Surface metal/non-metal · Mason County Road Department · MSHA ID 4502464
    Abandoned
  31. Lynch Road Gravel Pit
    Surface metal/non-metal · Simpson Timber Company · MSHA ID 4501779
    Abandoned
  32. Mason County Land Fill Pit
    Surface metal/non-metal · Interstate Asphalt Company Inc · MSHA ID 4502799
    Abandoned
  33. Micro-Wave Quarry
    Surface metal/non-metal · Simpson Timber Company · MSHA ID 4501782
    Abandoned
  34. Palmer Pit
    Surface metal/non-metal · Mason County Road Department · MSHA ID 4502462
    Abandoned
  35. Panhandle Lake Quarry
    Surface metal/non-metal · Simpson Timber Company · MSHA ID 4502461
    Abandoned
  36. Peninsula Sand & Gravel
    Surface metal/non-metal · Peninsula Topsoil LLC · MSHA ID 4503535
    Abandoned
  37. Ping Pong Pit
    Surface metal/non-metal · Simpson Timber Company · MSHA ID 4501795
    Abandoned
  38. Plant #4 Crusher
    Surface metal/non-metal · Ace Paving Company Inc · MSHA ID 4500562
    Abandoned
  39. Port Blakely Mill Quarry
    Surface metal/non-metal · Capital Development Company · MSHA ID 4502716
    Abandoned
  40. PORTABLE #3
    Surface metal/non-metal · Csr Associated Sand & Gravel Company Inc · MSHA ID 4503288
    Abandoned
  41. PORTABLE #4
    Surface metal/non-metal · Csr Associated Sand & Gravel Company Inc · MSHA ID 4503329
    Abandoned
  42. Portable Crusher - Plant 3
    Surface metal/non-metal · Ace Paving Company Inc · MSHA ID 4502751
    Abandoned
  43. Power Line Quarry
    Surface metal/non-metal · Simpson Timber Company · MSHA ID 4501778
    Abandoned
  44. Schafer Pit
    Surface metal/non-metal · Simpson Timber Company · MSHA ID 4501794
    Abandoned
  45. SIMPSON
    Surface metal/non-metal · Simpson Timber Company · MSHA ID 4501800
    Abandoned
  46. Taylor Towne Quarry
    Surface metal/non-metal · Northwest Rock, Inc. · MSHA ID 4503436
    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 52
Borrow Pit 46
Gravel Pit 14
Gravel/Borrow Pit - Undifferentiated 5
Borrow Pit 4
Quarry 3
Open Pit Mine 2
Open Pit Mine or Quarry 2
P3 Other 1
Gravel/Borrow Pit - Undifferentiated 1
Mine Dump 1
Other counties in WashingtonAll 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.