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Abandoned mines › Wyoming
Abandoned mine inventory

Abandoned mines in Laramie County, Wyoming

Laramie County, Wyoming has 165 mine and prospect features on USGS topographic maps published 1948–1994, including 13 mine openings (shafts, adits and air shafts) and 27 prospect pits; 4 of the features carry a name on the map. OSMRE's abandoned mine land inventory lists 29 problems in the county, 2 of them not yet reclaimed. MSHA's register carries 28 mines in the county with status Abandoned or Abandoned and Sealed.

Every mine and prospect feature the USGS digitized from historical topographic maps covering Laramie 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)
165
Mine openings
13
OSMRE problems unreclaimed
2
MSHA mines marked abandoned
28
4 features carry a name27 prospect pits37 quadrangle maps, published 1948–1994 29 OSMRE problems, 27 reclaimed 0 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
    29 14.9%
  2. Prospect pits and trenches
    shallow exploration diggings that never became a mine
    27 13.9%
  3. Mines and surface workings
    labelled mines, open pits, strip mines, placer and hydraulic workings
    12 6.2%
  4. Quarries, gravel and borrow pits
    construction-material and industrial-mineral extraction
    110 56.7%
  5. Dumps, tailings, spoil and gob
    what mining left above ground
    5 2.6%
  6. Other reclamation problems
    highwalls, subsidence, polluted or clogged water, fires, slides and gases in OSMRE's inventory
    11 5.7%
Named features on the maps4 named · from the USGS compilation
Name on map Feature
Comstock Mines Mine Shaft
Copper King Mine Mine Shaft
Horse Creek Quarries Quarry
Monte Cristo Mine 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 problems29 on inventory
Problem area Problem Status
Copper King P2 Portals Reclamation Completed
Copper King P2 Vertical Openings Reclamation Completed
Good Hope P2 Vertical Openings Reclamation Completed
Horse Creek Limestone Mine P1 Vertical Openings Reclamation Completed
Horse Creek Limestone Mine P2 Clogged Streams Reclamation Completed
Horse Creek Limestone Mine P2 Dangerous Highwalls Reclamation Completed
Horse Creek Limestone Mine P2 Portals Reclamation Completed
Horse Creek Limestone Mine P2 Subsidence Reclamation Completed
Horse Creek Limestone Mine P2 Subsidence Reclamation Completed
Horse Creek Limestone Mine P2 Vertical Openings Reclamation Completed
Horse Creek Limestone Mine P3 Equipment Facility In Reclamation
Horse Creek Limestone Mine P3 Haul Road Reclamation Completed
Horse Creek Limestone Mine P3 Pits Reclamation Completed
Horse Creek Limestone Mine P3 Pits Reclamation Completed
Horse Creek Limestone Mine P3 Slump Reclamation Completed
Horse Creek Limestone Mine P3 Spoil Area Reclamation Completed
Horse Creek Limestone Mine P3 Water Problems Reclamation Completed
Larm1008 P2 Vertical Openings Reclamation Completed
Larm1008 P3 Pits Reclamation Completed
London P2 Vertical Openings Reclamation Completed
Louise P2 Vertical Openings Reclamation Completed
McLoughlin Shaft P2 Vertical Openings Reclamation Pending
Precious Honor PLAT1001 P2 Dangerous Piles & Embankments Reclamation Completed
Precious Honor PLAT1001 P2 Portals Reclamation Completed
Precious Honor PLAT1001 P2 Portals Reclamation Completed
Precious Honor PLAT1001 P2 Vertical Openings Reclamation Completed
Precious Honor PLAT1001 P2 Vertical Openings Reclamation Completed
Rambler Prospect/yellowbird P2 Portals Reclamation Completed
Rambler Prospect/yellowbird P2 Vertical Openings 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 Abandoned28 on register
  1. 11001 Crusher
    Surface metal/non-metal · Sterling Paving Company · MSHA ID 4801384
    Abandoned
  2. Brodie Qy
    Surface metal/non-metal · Western Stone Co · MSHA ID 4800866
    Abandoned
  3. Burnett Pit
    Surface metal/non-metal · JTL Group, Inc. · MSHA ID 4801800
    Abandoned
  4. Carroll Pit
    Surface metal/non-metal · Sterling Sand & Gravel Company Of Wyoming · MSHA ID 4800947
    Abandoned
  5. CRUSHER #2
    Surface metal/non-metal · Simon Contractors · MSHA ID 4801510
    Abandoned
  6. Crusher No 3
    Surface metal/non-metal · Peter Kiewit Sons' Company · MSHA ID 4801408
    Abandoned
  7. Dean Fogg Pit
    Surface metal/non-metal · Read Readymix Company · MSHA ID 4801283
    Abandoned
  8. Hereford Pit
    Surface metal/non-metal · Gilpatrick Construction Company Inc · MSHA ID 4800519
    Abandoned
  9. Horse Creek Mine
    Underground metal/non-metal · Great Western Sugar Company · MSHA ID 4800003
    Abandoned
  10. Horse Creek Quarry
    Surface metal/non-metal · L.G. Everist · MSHA ID 4801906
    Abandoned
  11. Kasler-State Quarry
    Surface metal/non-metal · Andesite Rock Company · MSHA ID 4801415
    Abandoned
  12. Kunau Pit
    Surface metal/non-metal · Gilpatrick Construction Company Inc · MSHA ID 4801232
    Abandoned
  13. L F QUARRY
    Surface metal/non-metal · Colorado Lien Company · MSHA ID 4801541
    Abandoned
  14. LARAMIE NO 1
    Surface metal/non-metal · Wyoming Asphalt Concrete & Grav Co Inc/Stc Const · MSHA ID 4801486
    Abandoned
  15. Lyle Faith Quarry
    Surface metal/non-metal · Great Western Sugar Company · MSHA ID 4801054
    Abandoned
  16. Mccard Pit No 1
    Surface metal/non-metal · Mc Card Sand & Gravel Company · MSHA ID 4800773
    Abandoned
  17. Paul Meyer Plant
    Surface metal/non-metal · Fisher Sand & Gravel Company · MSHA ID 4801314
    Abandoned
  18. Portable Plant 1
    Surface metal/non-metal · Martin Marietta Materials Inc. · MSHA ID 0504359
    Abandoned
  19. Portable Plant A
    Surface metal/non-metal · L G Everist Inc · MSHA ID 4801452
    Abandoned
  20. Rocky Mountain Sand And Gravel Pit
    Surface metal/non-metal · Rocky Mountain Sand & Gravel Inc · MSHA ID 4801271
    Abandoned
  21. Sand & Gravel
    Surface metal/non-metal · Francis Cushing · MSHA ID 4800515
    Abandoned
  22. SANDERS PIT
    Surface metal/non-metal · Sanders Gravel & Excavating Inc · MSHA ID 4801528
    Abandoned
  23. Sanders Sand And Gravel Pit
    Surface metal/non-metal · Sanders Gravel & Excavating · MSHA ID 4800296
    Abandoned
  24. Teton Gravel & Wash Plant
    Surface metal/non-metal · Teton Construction Company · MSHA ID 4800300
    Abandoned
  25. Teton Pit #1
    Surface metal/non-metal · Teton Construction Company · MSHA ID 4800980
    Abandoned
  26. Tilton Readymix
    Surface metal/non-metal · Tilton Readymix · MSHA ID 4801727
    Abandoned
  27. WASH PLANT
    Surface metal/non-metal · Simon Contractors · MSHA ID 4800774
    Abandoned
  28. Yramius Paul Tracy Ranch
    Surface metal/non-metal · Read Readymix Company · MSHA ID 4800518
    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 45
Gravel Pit 33
Prospect Pit 27
Quarry 20
Disturbed Surface 11
P2 Vertical Openings 10
Mine Shaft 7
Adit 6
P2 Portals 5
Gravel/Borrow Pit - Undifferentiated 5
Mine Dump 3
Gravel/Borrow Pit - Undifferentiated 3
P3 Pits 3
Quarry 2
P2 Subsidence 2
P1 Vertical Openings 1
P3 Slump 1
Mine 1
P3 Spoil Area 1
Borrow Pit 1
P3 Haul Road 1
P2 Clogged Streams 1
P2 Dangerous Highwalls 1
Borrow Pit 1
P2 Dangerous Piles & Embankments 1
P3 Equipment Facility 1
P3 Water Problems 1
Other counties in WyomingAll 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.