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Abandoned mines › Wyoming
Abandoned mine inventory

Abandoned mines in Natrona County, Wyoming

Natrona County, Wyoming has 231 mine and prospect features on USGS topographic maps published 1949–1984, including 4 mine openings (shafts, adits and air shafts) and 64 prospect pits; 3 of the features carry a name on the map. OSMRE's abandoned mine land inventory lists 43 problems in the county, 14 of them not yet reclaimed. MSHA's register carries 33 mines in the county with status Abandoned or Abandoned and Sealed.

Every mine and prospect feature the USGS digitized from historical topographic maps covering Natrona 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)
231
Mine openings
4
OSMRE problems unreclaimed
14
MSHA mines marked abandoned
33
3 features carry a name64 prospect pits32 quadrangle maps, published 1949–1984 43 OSMRE problems, 29 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
    15 5.5%
  2. Prospect pits and trenches
    shallow exploration diggings that never became a mine
    64 23.4%
  3. Mines and surface workings
    labelled mines, open pits, strip mines, placer and hydraulic workings
    22 8.0%
  4. Quarries, gravel and borrow pits
    construction-material and industrial-mineral extraction
    141 51.5%
  5. Dumps, tailings, spoil and gob
    what mining left above ground
    12 4.4%
  6. Other reclamation problems
    highwalls, subsidence, polluted or clogged water, fires, slides and gases in OSMRE's inventory
    20 7.3%
Named features on the maps3 named · from the USGS compilation
Name on map Feature
Blue Rock Coal Mine Coal Mine
Poison Spider Coal Mine Mine Shaft
Swigart Coal Mine Coal 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 problems43 on inventory
Problem area Problem Status
A-8 Underground B2 + B3 Highwall P2 Hazardous Water Bodies Reclamation Completed
A-8 Underground B2 + B3 Highwall P2 Vertical Openings Reclamation Completed
Casper Coal Mine P2 Portals Reclamation Completed
Casper Coal Mine P3 Spoil Area Reclamation Completed
Casper Prospect P2 Dangerous Highwalls Reclamation Completed
Casper Prospect P2 Portals Reclamation Completed
Casper Prospect P2 Subsidence Reclamation Completed
Casper Prospect P3 Spoil Area Reclamation Completed
Co - Routt - Fea P1 Dangerous Slides Reclamation Completed
Granite Mountain Prospects P2 Portals Reclamation Completed
Granite Mountain Prospects P2 Vertical Openings Reclamation Completed
Granite Mountain Prospects P3 Pits Reclamation Completed
Jones Draw P2 Portals Reclamation Completed
Jones Draw P3 Spoil Area Reclamation Completed
Natr0014 P3 Spoil Area Reclamation Pending
Natr0018 P2 Dangerous Highwalls Reclamation Pending
Natr0018 P2 Industrial/Residential Waste Reclamation Pending
Natr0018 P2 Portals Reclamation Pending
Natr0018 P2 Vertical Openings Reclamation Pending
Natr0018 P3 Pits Reclamation Pending
Natr0018 P3 Spoil Area Reclamation Pending
Natr0022 P2 Dangerous Highwalls Reclamation Pending
Natr0022 P2 Dangerous Piles & Embankments Reclamation Pending
Natr0022 P3 Pits Reclamation Pending
Natr0022 P3 Spoil Area Reclamation Pending
Natr0024 P2 Subsidence Reclamation Pending
Natr0024 P2 Vertical Openings Reclamation Pending
Natr0024 P3 Spoil Area Reclamation Pending
Natr1010 P2 Hazardous Water Bodies Reclamation Completed
Natr1010 P2 Vertical Openings Reclamation Completed
Natr1010 P3 Pits Reclamation Completed
Natr1010 P3 Spoil Area Reclamation Completed
Natr1043 P2 Dangerous Piles & Embankments Reclamation Completed
Natr1043 P2 Hazardous Water Bodies Reclamation Completed
Natr1043 P3 Pits Reclamation Completed
Natr1064 P2 Clogged Streams Reclamation Completed
Natr1064 P2 Dangerous Highwalls Reclamation Completed
Natr1064 P2 Hazardous Water Bodies Reclamation Completed
Natr1064 P3 Pits Reclamation Completed
Natr1064 P3 Spoil Area Reclamation Completed
Rattlesnake Hills Quarry P2 Dangerous Highwalls Reclamation Completed
Rox Shaft Frmt1089 P2 Vertical Openings Reclamation Completed
Rox Shaft Frmt1089 P3 Spoil Area 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 Abandoned33 on register
  1. Bradshaw Pit
    Surface metal/non-metal · N-C Paving · MSHA ID 4801226
    Abandoned
  2. Crusher #1
    Surface metal/non-metal · McMurry Ready Mix Co. · MSHA ID 4801203
    Abandoned
  3. Crusher #1
    Surface metal/non-metal · Emulsified Asphalt Inc Of Wyoming · MSHA ID 4801483
    Abandoned
  4. Crusher #5
    Surface metal/non-metal · McMurry Ready Mix Co. · MSHA ID 4801590
    Abandoned
  5. Crusher #8
    Surface metal/non-metal · McMurry Ready Mix Co. · MSHA ID 4801748
    Abandoned
  6. Crusher No 1000
    Surface metal/non-metal · Paving Corp · MSHA ID 4801344
    Abandoned
  7. Crusher No 1001
    Surface metal/non-metal · Paving Corp · MSHA ID 4801240
    Abandoned
  8. East Pit
    Surface metal/non-metal · Paving Corp · MSHA ID 4801300
    Abandoned
  9. Ferris-Haggarty Copper Mine
    Underground metal/non-metal · Dos Lomas Mining Company · MSHA ID 4801332
    Abandoned
  10. Gas Hills Mill
    Facility metal/non-metal · Umetco Minerals Corp · MSHA ID 4800479
    Abandoned
  11. Hildebrand Pit
    Surface metal/non-metal · Boatright-Smith · MSHA ID 4800674
    Abandoned
  12. James Orr Crusher
    Surface metal/non-metal · James C Orr Contractor Inc · MSHA ID 4801317
    Abandoned
  13. Kolberg Portable Screen
    Surface metal/non-metal · 71 Construction · MSHA ID 4801421
    Abandoned
  14. Lathrop L-3 Pit
    Surface metal/non-metal · Falcon Concrete · MSHA ID 4801140
    Abandoned
  15. Midwest-Thoeming & Wakeman
    Surface metal/non-metal · Benton Clay Company · MSHA ID 4800063
    Abandoned
  16. Miller Pit
    Surface metal/non-metal · Frost Construction Company · MSHA ID 4801298
    Abandoned
  17. Morning Dew
    Surface metal/non-metal · Colorado Quarries Inc · MSHA ID 4801515
    Abandoned
  18. N C Paving Crusher #1
    Surface metal/non-metal · N-C Paving · MSHA ID 4801253
    Abandoned
  19. Nine Mile Lake Project
    Facility metal/non-metal · Rocky Mountain Energy Company · MSHA ID 4801119
    Abandoned
  20. NORDBERG HP 300
    Surface metal/non-metal · Scherer Construction Llc · MSHA ID 4801514
    Abandoned
  21. Oftedal Crusher #2
    Surface metal/non-metal · Oftedal Construction, Inc. · MSHA ID 2402340
    Abandoned
  22. Pat Underground
    Underground metal/non-metal · Federal American Partners · MSHA ID 4801210
    Abandoned
  23. Pursell Pit
    Surface metal/non-metal · James C Orr Contractor Inc · MSHA ID 4801316
    Abandoned
  24. Recycle
    Surface metal/non-metal · Wyoming Crushing Inc · MSHA ID 4801733
    Abandoned
  25. Rental
    Surface metal/non-metal · 71 Construction · MSHA ID 4801628
    Abandoned
  26. Rim Rock Ranch Pit
    Surface metal/non-metal · Rissler & Mc Murry Company · MSHA ID 4801094
    Abandoned
  27. Sodium
    Surface metal/non-metal · Pratt Sodium · MSHA ID 4800153
    Abandoned
  28. State Land Pit
    Surface metal/non-metal · Gilpatrick Construction Company Inc · MSHA ID 4801256
    Abandoned
  29. Sun Ray Pit
    Surface metal/non-metal · Sun Ray Energy Corp · MSHA ID 4801165
    Abandoned
  30. TEAPOT
    Underground metal/non-metal · U S Department Of Energy · MSHA ID 4801593
    Abandoned
  31. Unit 500
    Surface metal/non-metal · Mc Murry Brothers Company Inc · MSHA ID 4801386
    Abandoned
  32. Unit 505
    Surface metal/non-metal · Mc Murry Brothers Company Inc · MSHA ID 4801387
    Abandoned
  33. Unit 508
    Surface metal/non-metal · Mc Murry Brothers Company Inc · MSHA ID 4801388
    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
Prospect Pit 64
Gravel Pit 56
Gravel Pit 37
Clay Pit 24
Gravel/Borrow Pit - Undifferentiated 14
P3 Spoil Area 10
Disturbed Surface 9
Open Pit Mine 9
P3 Pits 6
P2 Vertical Openings 6
P2 Dangerous Highwalls 5
P2 Portals 5
P2 Hazardous Water Bodies 4
Gravel/Borrow Pit - Undifferentiated 4
Adit 3
Clay Pit 2
Coal Mine 2
P2 Subsidence 2
Borrow Pit 2
Quarry 2
P2 Dangerous Piles & Embankments 2
Mine Shaft 1
P2 Industrial/Residential Waste 1
P2 Clogged Streams 1
P1 Dangerous Slides 1
Strip Mine 1
Open Pit Mine 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.