Mining Incidents
Abandoned mine inventory

Abandoned mines in Mineral County, West Virginia

Mineral County, West Virginia has 140 mine and prospect features on USGS topographic maps published 1919–1997, including 10 mine openings (shafts, adits and air shafts); 5 of the features carry a name on the map. OSMRE's abandoned mine land inventory lists 56 problems in the county, 42 of them not yet reclaimed. MSHA's register carries 23 mines in the county with status Abandoned or Abandoned and Sealed.

Every mine and prospect feature the USGS digitized from historical topographic maps covering Mineral 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)
140
Mine openings
10
OSMRE problems unreclaimed
42
MSHA mines marked abandoned
23
5 features carry a name0 prospect pits10 quadrangle maps, published 1919–1997 56 OSMRE problems, 14 reclaimed 3 MSHA mines abandoned and sealed
What the features are
  1. Mine openings
    shafts, adits, air shafts, portals and vertical openings: the ways into underground workings
    11 5.6%
  2. Mines and surface workings
    labelled mines, open pits, strip mines, placer and hydraulic workings
    126 64.3%
  3. Quarries, gravel and borrow pits
    construction-material and industrial-mineral extraction
    4 2.0%
  4. Dumps, tailings, spoil and gob
    what mining left above ground
    16 8.2%
  5. Mills, tipples and facilities
    processing plants and hazardous structures
    3 1.5%
  6. Other reclamation problems
    highwalls, subsidence, polluted or clogged water, fires, slides and gases in OSMRE's inventory
    36 18.4%
Named features on the maps5 named · from the USGS compilation
Name on map Feature
Former Mine Strip Mine area
Former Mine Strip Mine area
Former Mine Strip Mine area
Former Mine Strip Mine area
Former Mine Strip Mine area

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 problems56 on inventory
Problem area Problem Status
Allegheny WMA AMD P3 Spoil Area Reclamation Pending
Allegheny WMA AMD P3 Water Problems Reclamation Pending
Barnum Highwall P3 High Wall Reclamation Pending
Bloomington Lake Refuse P3 Gobs Reclamation Pending
Bloomington Lake Refuse 2 P2 Dangerous Highwalls Reclamation Pending
Bloomington Lake Refuse 2 P2 Dangerous Impoundments Reclamation Pending
Bloomington Lake Refuse 2 P2 Dangerous Piles & Embankments Reclamation Pending
Bloomington Lake Refuse 2 P3 Equipment Facility Reclamation Pending
Burdock Highwall P2 Dangerous Highwalls Reclamation Completed
Burdock Highwall P3 Pits Reclamation Completed
Cranberry Run Highwall P2 Dangerous Highwalls Reclamation Pending
Cranberry Run Refuse P3 Gobs In Reclamation
Cranberry Run Refuse P3 High Wall In Reclamation
Cranberry Run Refuse P3 Mine Opening In Reclamation
Cranberry Run Refuse P3 Spoil Area In Reclamation
Crosstown Strip P3 Gobs In Reclamation
Deep Run Highwall #1 P3 High Wall Reclamation Pending
Deep Run Highwall #2 P3 High Wall Reclamation Pending
Deep Run Refuse P2 Dangerous Impoundments Reclamation Pending
Deep Run Refuse P2 Dangerous Piles & Embankments Reclamation Pending
Deep Run Refuse P3 High Wall Reclamation Pending
Elk Garden (Etchison) AMD P2 Clogged Streams Reclamation Pending
Elk Garden (Etchison) AMD P2 Dangerous Highwalls Reclamation Pending
Elk Garden (Etchison) AMD P2 Hazardous Water Bodies Reclamation Pending
Elk Garden (Etchison) AMD P3 Spoil Area Reclamation Pending
Elk Garden (Etchison) AMD P3 Water Problems Reclamation Pending
Elk Garden Highwall P3 High Wall Reclamation Pending
Elk Garden Subsidence P2 Subsidence Reclamation Pending
Emoryville Mine Complex P2 Clogged Streams Reclamation Completed
Emoryville Mine Complex P2 Dangerous Impoundments Reclamation Completed
Emoryville Mine Complex P2 Dangerous Piles & Embankments Reclamation Completed
Emoryville Mine Complex P2 Dangerous Piles & Embankments Reclamation Completed
Emoryville Mine Complex P2 Hazardous Equip & Facilities Reclamation Completed
Emoryville Mine Complex P2 Polluted Water: Agricultural & Industrial Reclamation Completed
Kephart Ramp Site P1 Dangerous Impoundments Reclamation Completed
Montgomery Run Portal & Tipple P2 Dangerous Piles & Embankments Reclamation Pending
Montgomery Run Portal & Tipple P2 Hazardous Equip & Facilities Reclamation Pending
Montgomery Run Portal & Tipple P2 Portals Reclamation Pending
Montgomery Run Refuse P3 Industrial/Residential Waste Reclamation Pending
Montgomery Run Refuse P3 Spoil Area Reclamation Pending
Oakmont Highwall #1 P3 High Wall Reclamation Pending
Oakmont Highwall #2 P2 Dangerous Highwalls Reclamation Pending
Oakmont Highwall #2 P3 High Wall Reclamation Pending
Piney Swamp Highwall P3 High Wall Reclamation Pending
Piney Swamp Run Refuse #1 P2 Dangerous Highwalls Reclamation Completed
Piney Swamp Run Refuse #1 P2 Dangerous Impoundments Reclamation Completed
Piney Swamp Run Refuse #1 P2 Dangerous Piles & Embankments Reclamation Completed
Piney Swamp Run Refuse #1 P2 Hazardous Equip & Facilities Reclamation Completed
Piney Swamp Run Refuse #1 P2 Polluted Water: Agricultural & Industrial Reclamation Completed
Piney Swamp Run Refuse #4 P2 Dangerous Impoundments Reclamation Pending
Piney Swamp Run Refuse #4 P2 Dangerous Piles & Embankments Reclamation Pending
Piney Swamp Strips P2 Dangerous Piles & Embankments Reclamation Pending
Piney Swamp Strips P3 Spoil Area Reclamation Pending
Shaw Highwall P2 Dangerous Highwalls Reclamation Pending
Stoney River Highwall #3 P3 High Wall Reclamation Pending
Warnocks Highwall P2 Dangerous Highwalls Reclamation Pending

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 Abandoned23 on register
  1. ALLEGANY QUARRIES, A DIV OF T.G.
    Surface metal/non-metal · Allegany Quarries · MSHA ID 4600002
    Abandoned
  2. Beryl Tipple
    Facility coal · Beryl Coal Company · MSHA ID 4606330
    Abandoned
  3. Hampshire Hill Strip
    Surface coal · Duckworth Coal Inc · MSHA ID 4602570
    Abandoned
  4. Hampshire Preparation Facilities
    Facility coal · Masteller Coal Company · MSHA ID 4606150
    Abandoned
  5. Hanlin Mine-Surface
    Surface coal · Chestnut Ridge Coal Corp · MSHA ID 4606621
    Abandoned
  6. Job No 9 Strip Mine
    Surface coal · Allegheny Mining Corp · MSHA ID 4602157
    Abandoned
  7. Jones No 1 Strip
    Surface coal · Wood Products Inc · MSHA ID 4604691
    Abandoned
  8. Jt #4
    Underground coal · Masteller Coal Company · MSHA ID 4607665
    Abandoned
  9. Jt#2
    Underground coal · Masteller Coal Company · MSHA ID 4605948
    Abandoned and Sealed
  10. Kalbaugh No 1 Surface
    Surface coal · Burdock Coal Company Inc · MSHA ID 4605527
    Abandoned
  11. Lynnwood No 4
    Underground coal · Masteller Coal Company Inc · MSHA ID 4601878
    Abandoned
  12. Mineral Stone Corporation Aurora Stone
    Surface metal/non-metal · Mineral Stone Corp · MSHA ID 4600003
    Abandoned
  13. Nally Stripp
    Surface coal · Masteller Coal Company Inc · MSHA ID 4606845
    Abandoned
  14. No 1 Auger
    Surface coal · Smeltzer Augering Company · MSHA ID 4602641
    Abandoned
  15. No 1 Strip
    Surface coal · D & L Coal Company Inc · MSHA ID 4602489
    Abandoned
  16. No 1 Strip
    Surface coal · Rostosky Mining · MSHA ID 4603081
    Abandoned
  17. No 2 Auger
    Surface coal · Wells Auger Mining Inc · MSHA ID 4603096
    Abandoned
  18. No 2 Mine Auger
    Surface coal · More Head Auger Mining Company · MSHA ID 4602638
    Abandoned
  19. No 4 Mine Auger
    Surface coal · More Head Auger Mining Company · MSHA ID 4602639
    Abandoned
  20. Piedmont Mine
    Surface coal · Duckworth Coal Inc · MSHA ID 4609196
    Abandoned
  21. Plant No 3
    Surface metal/non-metal · Seneca Sand Inc · MSHA ID 4606167
    Abandoned
  22. Tanglewood No 2
    Underground coal · Tanglewood Energy Inc · MSHA ID 4606329
    Abandoned and Sealed
  23. Yukon No 1
    Underground coal · Concord Coal Corp · MSHA ID 4605714
    Abandoned and Sealed

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
Strip Mine 92
Open Pit Mine or Quarry 19
Adit 10
P3 High Wall 10
P2 Dangerous Piles & Embankments 8
P2 Dangerous Highwalls 8
Strip Mine 7
Disturbed Surface 6
P2 Dangerous Impoundments 5
P3 Spoil Area 5
P3 Gobs 3
P2 Hazardous Equip & Facilities 3
P2 Clogged Streams 2
Open Pit Mine or Quarry 2
P2 Polluted Water: Agricultural & Industrial 2
Quarry 2
P3 Water Problems 2
P2 Portals 1
P3 Mine Opening 1
P2 Subsidence 1
P3 Equipment Facility 1
P2 Hazardous Water Bodies 1
Quarry 1
P3 Pits 1
Gravel/Borrow Pit - Undifferentiated 1
P1 Dangerous Impoundments 1
P3 Industrial/Residential Waste 1
Other counties in West VirginiaAll 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.