Tri –State Mining Map Collection Home

The Tri-State Mining Map Collection at Missouri Southern State University, consists of more than 5,000 maps that document lead and zinc mining in Southwest Missouri, Southeast Kansas, and Northeast Oklahoma. The collection has important historical, environmental, and economic information available in no other archival collection.

Mining began in the Tri-State area in 1848 when lead ore was discovered near Joplin, Missouri. In the 1870’s smelting plants were built in Kansas which prompted further exploration and increased production of both lead and zinc. Similar discoveries soon followed in Oklahoma. The Tri-State Zinc Lead District was established in 1917.

Lead and zinc mining lasted in the region for over 100 years, from 1850 until 1958, when the reduction in prices for lead and zinc led to the decline and the eventual end of mining in the area. Missouri Southern State University acquired the Tri-State Mining Map Collection in 1979 from the Federal Bureau of Mines. The collection has been made widely available to the community including property owners, researchers, environmental agencies and groups, real estate developers, and engineers.