Nevada, abandoned mine maps

Nevada Abandoned Mine Maps

The two federal files record 18,605 underground mine openings in Nevada, shafts, adits and tunnels drawn on the historical topographic sheets, alongside 13,275 old mine sites. This page shows where they are, who holds the maps, and what to do if the ground moves.

Information only, no guarantee: read the limits at the foot of this page before you act on anything here.

This page

What this page is

Every office on this page was opened and checked on Oct. 22, 2026.

The 18,605 underground mine openings in Nevada are spread across 16 counties, and the heaviest of them is Nye County with 3,219. An opening on a historical sheet is a shaft, an adit or a tunnel that was drawn where the surveyor found it, so it marks a way into workings that run on underground, away from the point.

Everything here can be wrong. This is information, not a guarantee: the two federal files can be wrong, incomplete or out of date, the boundaries and the geocoder can be wrong, a point is a location and not a property line, and nothing on this page says that a mine is or is not under any particular property. Do not buy, sell, move, or make any decision about a home or about your safety on this alone. Ask the state mine map office named here for the maps, and have a qualified engineer look at the ground.

Start here

Official Nevada mine record sources

Every card goes to the office that holds the record. Use the category buttons to narrow the list.

Filter by type

Showing 7 official sources

Official

Federal

OSMRE National Mine Map Repository

The federal archive of maps of closed and abandoned mines, searchable by state, county, company and mine name; the images are sent on request through the map request form.

mmr.osmre.gov
Open official site OSMRE National Mine Map Repository
Official

Federal

OSMRE e-AMLIS

The federal inventory of abandoned mine land problems and the reclamation work funded against them, state by state and county by county.

amlis.osmre.gov
Open official site OSMRE e-AMLIS
Official

Federal

USGS USMIN topographic mine features

The national file of adits, shafts, pits and quarries digitised from the historical topographic sheets, each with the sheet name and the survey year.

mrdata.usgs.gov
Open official site USGS USMIN topographic mine features

The map

Nevada mine workings on one map

To look at one address, one ZIP code or one town instead of the whole state, open the mine map hub search and enter it there: it takes a street address, a ZIP code or your browser location and lists what sits within the radius you choose.

Who keeps what

Who keeps which mine records in Nevada?

What you needOffice or archiveWhat it can tell you
Maps of the workings themselvesNevada Bureau of Mines and Geology Digital Library (Mining District Files, Engineering Files)The mine name, the seam, the year the map was certified and whether your area is inside a mapped working
An open hole, a shaft or a subsidence emergencyNevada Division of Minerals, Abandoned Mine LandsReport it to this office; call 911 first if anyone is in danger
The geology, the seams and the published mappingNevada Bureau of Mines and Geology, mining recordsWhich seams were worked in your county and what the state has digitised
A map of a closed mine the state does not holdOSMRE National Mine Map RepositoryThe federal archive of more than 275,000 mine maps, searched by state, county, company and mine name
Whether a reclamation project is on record near youOSMRE e-AMLISThe federal inventory of abandoned mine land problems and the work funded on them

County by county

Nevada counties with recorded mine workings

16 counties have a record in one of the two federal files. Ranked by underground openings first, because an opening is a way into workings that run on underground.

CountyUnderground openingsMapped featuresOld mine sites
Nye County3,21916,0701,840
Esmeralda County2,67816,4321,250
Mineral County2,4978,328978
White Pine County1,7718,093677
Clark County1,2884,255721
Pershing County1,2615,3631,279
Churchill County9165,231745
Elko County8267,1121,464
Lyon County7985,357385
Humboldt County7667,417986
Lincoln County7111,668791
Eureka County6594,110381
Lander County5465,921944
Washoe County3272,172533
Storey County200791150
Douglas County1421,299151

Town by town

Towns in Nevada with workings inside the town limits

30 towns with the most records inside its own boundary, of 50 towns that hold one.

TownUnderground openingsMapped featuresOld mine sites
Tonopah7732244
Searchlight779813
Reno218921
Ely17774
Yerington1418711
Beatty137714
Henderson1222313
Goldfield111714
Pioche111514
Sparks10352
Austin93031
Sun Valley7513
Fernley527512
Silver Springs5483
Caliente4196
Dayton26813
North Las Vegas2265
Owyhee1154
Las Vegas02351
Amargosa Valley01752
Pahrump0213
Ruth0200
Silver Peak0172
Genoa075
Carlin054
Dyer063
Wadsworth081
Laughlin052
Spring Creek070
West Wendover070

The real document

How to get the mine map itself

Nevada Bureau of Mines and Geology Digital Library (Mining District Files, Engineering Files) is the state route in Nevada. The bureau's digital collections of mining district files, engineering files, exploration reports and mineral land assessments, browsable by county and mining district.

OSMRE National Mine Map Repository is the federal archive. It holds maps of more than 275,000 closed and abandoned mines, the images are not downloadable, and they are sent on request: search the repository by state, county, company or mine name, then ask for the sheet by its number through the map request form or at nmmr@osmre.gov.

A mine map is the only document that shows the rooms, the pillars and the depth of cover under a given piece of ground. A point in either federal file is a location, not a property line, and it says nothing about what lies under any particular house.

Emergency

If the ground moves in Nevada

If the ground has opened, if a hole is swallowing water or soil, if a wall or a floor has moved suddenly, or if anyone could fall in, call 911 first. A subsidence hole can keep opening, and the edge of it is not safe to stand on.

When nobody is in immediate danger, Nevada Division of Minerals, Abandoned Mine Lands is the office to call in Nevada. The state program that identifies inactive mines, ranks the hazard and secures them; Sean Derby, 775-684-7047, sderby@minerals.nv.gov, with an AML incident report and FAQ.

Then tell the people who need the record of it: your insurer, your county emergency management office, and, if the hole is in a road or a right of way, the authority that maintains it. Photograph it with something in the frame for scale, write down the date and the time, and keep measuring it, because how fast it grows is what an engineer will ask about first.

Signs worth reporting before anything opens: doors and windows that stop closing, new cracks that run at an angle across a wall, a floor or a drive that dips, a sudden wet patch or a dry well, and a smell of sulphur or a warm patch of ground where snow melts first.

Cover

Mine subsidence insurance in Nevada

Nevada runs no state mine subsidence insurance programme. Cover, where an insurer offers it at all, is an endorsement on a homeowner policy, and a standard policy excludes earth movement, which is what mine subsidence is.

Ask your own insurer in writing whether the policy covers subsidence from mining, and keep the answer. Seven states run a programme of their own: Pennsylvania, Ohio, West Virginia, Kentucky, Indiana, Illinois and Wyoming, with a protection programme in Colorado.

The data

What the federal files hold for Nevada

The topographic file holds 99,619 mapped mine features inside Nevada, 18,605 of them underground openings. The sheets they were drawn on were surveyed between 1953 and 1994. The commonest kinds are prospect pit, mine shaft and adit.

The mineral file holds 13,275 worked or prospected sites in Nevada, 13,251 of them named, with 6,706 sites recorded as a past producer. The commodities most often named are gold, silver and gold, silver.

How the counting was done: every point in both files was placed inside the Census TIGER 2024 county and place boundaries by its own coordinates, not by the county name written in the file, because that name is blank or wrong often enough to matter. A point that falls outside every boundary is counted in no county and no town.

What the counts are not: a count of mines under houses. A single opening can lead to workings that run for miles, and a working with no opening on a sheet is in no count at all. Only a mine map shows the rooms, and only the offices named above hold the maps.

Everything here can be wrong. This is information, not a guarantee: the two federal files can be wrong, incomplete or out of date, the boundaries and the geocoder can be wrong, a point is a location and not a property line, and nothing on this page says that a mine is or is not under any particular property. Do not buy, sell, move, or make any decision about a home or about your safety on this alone. Ask the state mine map office named here for the maps, and have a qualified engineer look at the ground.

Straight answers

Nevada mine map questions

Open only the answer you need.

Can I find out whether a mine is under my house?

Not from this page and not from either federal file. A point is a location, not a property line. The only document that shows the workings under a given piece of ground is the mine map, and in Nevada you ask Nevada Bureau of Mines and Geology Digital Library (Mining District Files, Engineering Files) for it.

Who do I call in Nevada if the ground opens up?

Call 911 first if anyone could be hurt. After that Nevada Division of Minerals, Abandoned Mine Lands is the office to tell.

Where do the numbers on this page come from?

Two federal files: the USGS Mineral Resources Data System and the USGS USMIN file of mine features digitised from the historical topographic sheets. Every point was placed inside the Census 2024 county and place boundaries by its own coordinates. For Nevada that is 99,619 mapped mine features and 13,275 old mine sites.

Does homeowner insurance cover mine subsidence in Nevada?

A standard policy excludes earth movement, and mine subsidence is earth movement. Nevada runs no state subsidence programme, so ask your own insurer in writing whether any endorsement is available and keep the answer.

What does an underground opening on an old map mean?

It means a surveyor drew a shaft, an adit or a tunnel mouth at that spot when the sheet was made. It is a way in. The workings it leads to can run a long way from it, and the map of those workings is a separate document held by the offices named on this page.

Which Nevada counties have the most recorded workings?

By underground openings first: Nye with 3,219 openings and 16,070 mapped features; Esmeralda with 2,678 openings and 16,432 mapped features; Mineral with 2,497 openings and 8,328 mapped features. Each county page lists the named workings inside it and carries its own map.

Is this an official government source?

No. This is a public records guide. The offices it names and links are the official sources, and everything on this page can be wrong: check it with them before you act on it.