Open-file Report - 549
Acquiring and georeferencing coal mine maps: San Juan Basin including the Gallup Coal Field

This report on the abandoned coal mines in the San Juan Basin coal fields of northwest New Mexico brings together all the known mine and coal geology maps, coal reports, and coal mine photographs in this area, including maps reported in Hoffman and Wilks (2010) on the Gallup coal field. The first mention of coal in New Mexico was in 1803 (Jones, 1904, p. 211). It was not until the early 1880’s and the building of railroads across the United States that coal in the Monero and Gallup fields was developed. The railroads and local fuel needs kept many of the mines open after World War II. A few of the small underground mines continued to operate until the late 1960s- early 1970s. With the change to diesel for the railroads and natural gas for home heating, and more stringent regulations most of the small coal operations ceased to exist.

There are 19 recognized coal fields in the San Juan Basin: Gallup, Chaco Canyon, Bisti, Star Lake, Chacra Mesa, Navajo, Barker Creek, Hogback, Toadlena, Newcomb, Fruitland, La Ventana, Standing Rock, Crownpoint, San Mateo, South Mount Taylor, East Mount Taylor, Rio Puerco, and Zuni. Outliers on the northeastern side of the basin include the Tierra Amarilla and Monero fields.

The full report contains a large amount of data and would be very slow to download. Consequently, the data from this report is only available on DVD-ROM (click the Buy Now link to order online or contact our publications office).

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This supersedes Open-file 530

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