National Mine Map Repository

THE HISTORY OF THE NATIONAL MINE MAP REPOSITORY

In 1969 an act of Congress established the need for a National mine map repository. The repository was funded and assigned to the Department of the Interior (DOI), Bureau of Mines (BOM) in 1970. A repository was set up at a BOM office in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania that covered all States east of the Mississippi River with the exception of Louisiana and Minnesota. These two States, together with States west of the Mississippi River, were covered by a repository at the BOM Intermountain Field Operation Center in Denver, Colorado. Northwest states were covered by the BOM office in Spokane, WA.

In 1982 the responsibility for the repository and the Repository staff were formally transferred to DOI's Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement (OSM). Later, when BOM was dissolved in 1996, all of the maps from the BOM offices were consolidated into the current OSM Pittsburgh repository, currently designated as the National Mine Map Repository (NMMR). The Wilkes-Barre repository covers only the anthracite coal region of northeastern Pennsylvania.

From the beginning, the mission of the repository has been to obtain authoritative maps on completed mining operations and preserve them on microfilm. High priority is given to maps of mines in areas where the potential for adverse impact to the environment was most significant. The NMMR, in addition to being an archival entity concerned with the preservation of mine maps, is a storehouse of information on mines.  The NMMR index system is a database of mining related information. It is a valuable resource of for identifying mineral and energy reserves and for addressing mining related environmental issues. The information is made available to Federal and State geological surveys, State mining bureaus, mining companies, oil and gas companies, conservationists, research and planning organizations, water pollution boards, city and industrial planners, highway engineers, building contractors and real estate developers and private citizens.

Today the NMMR is a modern high-tech facility with leading edge map scanning and archiving capability, and a state-of-the-art electronic map indexing system. The primary archival method remains microfilm although more and more of the Repository's holdings are also available in digital format held on over 40 terabytes of storage capacity.

NMMR HOME PAGE

National Mine Map Repository Pittsburgh, PA	Mine Map Repository Wilkes-Barre, PA
Greig Robertson, Mine Map Specialist	Michael Kuhns, Supervisor
Office of Surface Mining	Office of Surface Mining
3 Parkway Center	The Stegmaier Building
Pittsburgh, PA  15220	7 North Wilkes-Barre Blvd, Suite 308
Telephone number:  412.937.3001	Wilkes-Barre, PA  18702-5293
Fax number 412.937.2888	570.830.1400
	570.830.1421
Office Hours:  7:30 a.m. - 4:00 p.m.	Office Hours:  7:30 a.m. to 4:00 p.m.
Monday - Friday by appointment	Monday - Friday

Notice: Mine maps within the National Mine Map Repository are not guaranteed to be accurate, correct or complete. These maps have been donated to the Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement from various sources and the mines, streets, surface features and coal elevations cannot be verified. OSM does not warrant the accuracy of the mine maps within the NMMR, or the reliability of findings based upon data from the maps or from digital mapping programs.

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