Pygmy Mine (Pigmy Mine; Myers prospect), Mexico, Crittenden County, Kentucky, USAi

Regional Level Types
Pygmy Mine (Pigmy Mine; Myers prospect)	Mine
Mexico	Unincorporated Community
Crittenden County	County
Kentucky	State
USA	Country

Pygmy Mine (Pigmy Mine; Myers prospect), Illinois-Kentucky Fluorspar District, USA

A series of shafts and open cuts on the Tabb fault system. This is probably the best exposed fluorite-barite mine in the Kentucky portion of the fluorspar district. In addition to material on the dumps, exposures of steeply dipping strata are visible.
The area is dangerous, with open shafts exposed. The Pigmy mine has no fewer than 14 shafts on the property.
The area was first mentioned as the "Myers prospect) by Ulrich & Smith (1905). At that time, it consisted of several open cuts and shallow shafts exposing a 200-foot-wide residuum zone of barite and minor fluorite. Hoeing (1913) described a 100-foot Pygmy shaft with drifts at the 60 and 100-foot levels.
In 1915 the property was purchased by Rosiclare Lead & Spar Co. A single 150-foot shaft with a 300-foot drift was reported (Trace, 1985). Two shafts, the no. 1 and No. 6 were sunk to 220 and 330 feet, respectively. The No. 1 shaft was reported to have a680-foot drift and a 200-foot-long cross cut at the bottom. Additional drifts were at the 50, 90 and 150-foot levels. The No. 6 shaft had crosscuts at the 110 and 330-foot levels. Operations were discontinued in 1919 after removing 15,000 tons of fluorite.
Henry and Frazier reopened the Pigmy briefly in 1928 - 1929, removing 2,000 tons of ore from five shafts.
J.S. Frazier sunk six shafts of depths ranging from 50 to 150 feet between 1936 and 1941. Additional shafts were sunk later, but no information is available. Total production from 1936 to the early 1950's could have been as much as 73,000 tons.
The property was leased to J.W. Crider in the mid to late 1950's. The main operation was an open cut which continued intermittantly until 1973. Crider's strip mine followed the fault zone for 1,500 feet. Draglines removed an estimated 15,000 tons of fluorite and an additional 15,000 tons of barite from shallow deposits 100 to 200 feet wide. The cuts are readily visible today.
The status of the property for collecting is unknown, although the road leading to the mine (possibly a county road) shouts "No Trespassing!" Specimens were very scarce in 1983 and 1986 visits.

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