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Do not enter where you see signs such as "Caving Ground" or "Mine shaft." ABANDONED MINES Posted on the World Wide Web by Michigan Technological University Michigan Mining Engineering Department based on materials from the Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA) booklet "Abandoned Mines." The information about abandoned mines in Michigan has been provided by the Mineral Technology Research Group taken in part from the Michigan Department of Natural Resources funded project on abandoned underground mines. Educational use of this material is encouraged. Click Here for a recent summary of the Michigan Underground Mine project that is appended to this report. Dr. Allan M. Johnson, Director, Mineral Technology Research Group, Department of Mining Engineering, Michigan Technological University. Abandoned Mines, Quarries and Cave-ins have claimed the lives of many adults and children over the years. Some fatalities have occurred in Michigan. There were several mining areas in Michigan. Some of the mines were opened in the 1840s and were closed and abandoned over 100 years ago. While many mine operators have taken precautions to fill in and secure abandoned mine areas, many old mines were opened and then abandoned long before any consideration was given for making the areas safe after ore extraction was completed. Michigan has many mines that were opened up in the 1840s. There are very limited records of the locations of shafts. Also it may not be known how near the surface these undermined areas are or how extensive the mine voids may be. People enter abandoned mines for a variety of reasons, ranging from curiosity to vandalism. Those who seek these pastimes often meet with sorrow and misfortune. Many young people (as well as adults) have been killed or injured while attempting to satisfy a desire to explore old mines, caves, and open pits. Any old mine can be a death trap. Trespassers not only violate the law but they risk their lives and the lives of others. Probably the greatest number of accidents around mines occur to children. Public schools in mining districts should teach children about the dangers that exist around these old abandoned mines. Fences and "No Trespassing" signs may not stop children from venturing into a mine or mining area. Fences or signs may be obscured or hidden by trees and bushes, or covered by deep snow, or the fences or warning signs may not have been maintained. Thus, children or adults may venture innocently into an area that has old cave-ins and shafts. The increasing use of snowmobiles and all-terrain vehicles, such as four-wheelers, traveling into forested areas makes possible the accidental discovery of an abandoned mine area. People should remain on marked trails. Another factor is that unknown or unrecorded old mine workings may have caved-in and authorities and present owners may not be aware of the new cave-ins. This has happened in some of the oldest mined areas. In areas where mining is known to have taken place in the 1800s, such as parts of Michigan, openings such as pits or crevices should always be avoided. Children should be warned to stay away from such openings. The counties where mines were opened in the 1800s and have been closed and abandoned over a hundred years ago in some cases include: Keweenaw, Houghton, Ontonagon, Baraga, Marquette, Gogebic, Iron, and Dickinson, all in the upper peninsula. SURFACE FEATURES Many open pits exist in mining areas. Pit walls may be unstable and landslides may occur at any time. There may be overhanging edges on pit walls that could collapse when a person stands on them. The walls of the pit may be steep. Persons have drowned in the water in these pits because the water may be deep all around the pit with no ledge or place to hold on to. Diving into a pit is dangerous because there may be rocks just below the water surface. People have fallen to their death from the top of a pit or have been struck by falling rock when inside a pit. Stay away from open pits, quarries and gravel pits. SHAFTS Mine shafts may be vertical, as straight down, or inclined at an angle from nearly vertical(90 degrees) to being nearly level (adits). Many shafts are 55 degrees or 35 degrees, or 26 degrees. In Michigan all types occur. Open mine shafts are especially dangerous. The rock or soil around the shaft may be unstable and the shaft timbers may be rotten. Do not walk anywhere near a shaft opening. When you see an area enclosed fully or just partly with old fence posts with wire or fence attached---even if the fence and posts have fallen down---stay way from the area. Be suspicious. It may be a shaft opening. It is possible that a new cave-in or subsidence may have just taken place--and you are the first person to find it. You will have no idea how much undermining or caving may have taken place. The whole area may be ready and waiting to cave into the shaft or other mine which may be hundreds of feet deep. You may be on "thin ice" ----So stay away. ADITS Adits, unlike shafts, are openings into a mine that are level or nearly level like a tunnel. These tunnels may be dangerous because rocks can fall from overhead. There may be holes in the tunnel called winzes that drop straight down hundreds of feet. Old boards or timbers over these winzes may obscure them and may not support your weight. CAVE-INS The ground area around abandoned mine openings and pits can be weak and cave-in without warning. Because there are old mines from the mid 1800s in Michigan, mine timbers or pillars may have taken all of these 150 years to finally fail and cause a cave-in. A minor disturbance, such as vibrations caused by walking or or any noise, like speaking, may be just enough to cause an area to cave in under the surface or a hollowed out area to open up to the surface. In some cases, people have fallen into a cave-in and survived only to die from starvation, suffocation or drowning. EXPLOSIVES In some cases, old explosives left behind have been discovered in mining areas. Never handle anything that may be an explosive. SWIMMING Mining properties may have lakes or ponds in pits or reservoirs for mine operations. These water bodies are not for swimming, they may have steep banks, water may be very deep and cold. There may be underwater obstructions such as rocks or mining equipment. Cave-ins may have water in the bottom with steep sides and no place to hold on to. WINZES A shaft that is sunk downward in a tunnel or adit is called a winze. In many old mines winzes were sunk in the floors of the adit or tunnel and then boarded over. The winze may look like a puddle. But it may be a deep opening that is filled with water. SHALLOW STOPES A surface area may be hollow underneath: it may be undermined by stopes or large caverns from mined-out areas underground. In old mine areas, these caverns may have been caving in slowly over the years. The hollowed area may have been slowly climbing higher towards the surface. The depth of ground over these caverns may have decreased. New cracks and crevices may be visible. If there are surface features of a former mine, such as shafts or adits, fences or signs, there may be shallow under-mined areas nearby. This is another reason to stay away from the area. UNDERGROUND FEATURES You should never go underground into an old mine opening. If you do fall or slide into the underground area by accident, the following are some of the underground dangers. TIMBERS Timbers were used to support a mine roof and walls. Wood may take a while to rot, but eventually the wood rots and decays. It may even appear solid, but it may be rotten and soft. You may step on a timber or board that may collapse or fall to pieces. It may be covering a deep hole. Even good timbers may be loose and fall with the slightest touch. An area may appear well-timbered and supported, when, in fact, it cannot support its own weight. There is a danger of brushing against a timber and causing an entire area to cave-in. STEPS, LADDERS Ladders may be present in an underground area. They may be rotten wood, or just some of the rungs may be rotted. UNSUPPORTED ROOF AND WALLS Many underground passageways, tunnels, drifts, adits, stopes and other underground areas do not have timbers to support them. When the mine has been deserted, the strength of the walls and roof may have deteriorated. The weight of overburden has been pressing down and squeezing the roof and walls. There is no way of knowing when the exact time has come for the rock to loosen and fall. BAD AIR Minerals and decaying timber may have caused a build up of gases or a lack of oxygen. A lit match may cause a flammable gas like methane to explode or you may become tired and dizzy from lack of good air. When mines were operating, the ventilation with good air was very important. Abandoned mines usually have no ventilation to get rid of bad air. In some cases people have lost their lives in pits because of bad air in the confined space. Also, sound may not travel as far in an underground mine. AIR BLASTS Cave-ins underground may occur at any time. This may cause an air blast to travel through the mine. Water may also be blasted out of a water-filled part of the mine into a dry area. UNDERGROUND HOLES AND SHAFTS Underground holes and vertical openings may be part of the mining operation, such as winzes or shafts between levels, or shafts from adits into deeper areas. Some holes were made as chutes for dumping rock into a deeper area of the mine. Some may be old ventilation shafts. Or holes may be caused by caving ground into deeper mined areas underneath. Persons falling into a hole underground may fall hundreds of feet to their death, or fall into a water-filled part of the old mine. These holes may be covered by rotten timbers that will collapse when stepped on or they may look like a puddle of water. DARKNESS Underground areas are dangerous because of the darkness. You may have light, but it may not be bright enough or you may lose your light. Mine shafts are deceptive because there is little or no light in a dark hole. When coming up to a deep hole, you may not sense the feeling of height and perspective as you would when looking over the edge of a tall building or a cliff, so you may not feel the normal reaction to "pull back" from the edge of a deep hole. WATER A great danger in an old mine is that water over a hole may even be covered with dust and look like solid ground. It is usually impossible to see the bottom of water, standing water or flowing water. Even in a level adit, water may conceal a winze or chute or deep hole that is straight down. An underground area may even be dry while mined areas overhead are full of water. A sudden cave-in may allow hundreds of feet of water from levels above to rush into the dry area. Some mines had wooden dams to keep water from one part of the mine out of another part. These dams could break at any time. All abandoned mine water should be considered unfit for drinking. UNDERGROUND FIRES In some cases a fire may occur in an abandoned mine. Never strike a match or start a fire in an old mine. There may be no ventilation, odorless explosive or flammable gas may be present. Even if that is not the case, a fire could deplete limited oxygen, liberate dangerous gases and spread through the mine, cutting off any escape. ABANDONED EXPLOSIVES While explosives may be discovered in surface areas, it is also possible to stumble onto explosives underground. Any disturbance may set off explosives after decades of sitting in an abandoned mine. DANGEROUS ANIMALS AND INSECTS Though many old mines in other parts of the country may have snakes, scorpions, and spiders, in Michigan it is possible to stir up a black bear residing in an old adit or mine opening. Bears are known to occupy some adits. You cannot predict what a bear will do in a confined space. Bats usually occupy abandoned mines. Bats will try to avoid you, but they may startle you. MAZE OF A MINE Underground areas, such as adits, drifts and levels are often in a maze of passages. Persons have died in the maze of an old mine from exhaustion, thirst, hunger, and exposure as well as from slips and falls. Some mines in Michigan have many miles of passages. Do not enter where you see signs such as "Caving Ground" or "Mine shaft." Do not cross fences. Be suspicious of any location where old rotten fence posts and rusty barbed wire is found. There were hundreds of mines in Michigan that were opened and operated as early as the 1840s that have been closed and abandoned for over a hundred years. While the state of Michigan has provided for mine inspectors in counties where mining has occurred and currently has issued a contract to Michigan Technological University for a program to finding old mine shafts and workings, some are still unknown and unmarked.