The earliest surface and underground mines opened in 1820 in the present-day Tower Grove South area where the Russell family found coal deposits on their land[24]. In 1855, they also began to mine clay[24]. Both the clay and coal mines ceased operating around 1887 when the coal ran out and the family’s land was sold to make way for the construction in Tower Grove South[25, 24]. 

The Hill, Northampton, and Southampton underground mines opened in the 1840s and 50s[12]. By 1900, there were more than five miles of underground mine tunnels in the area[12]. Mining in these areas ceased around 1952[12]. Dogtown also was defined by underground clay mining from 1860 to the 1930s[18, 17]. There were over 25 underground clay and coal mines in the Dogtown area alone, with 95 mines total in the county and city[8]. Figure 1 is an image of miners in an underground clay mine. With the onset of the Great Depression, mining died out within the neighborhoods of Dogtown and was replaced by blue-collar factory work [18]. All coal and clay mine locations can be seen in Figure 2. 

The earliest documented limestone mining began in 1839[14]. The number of quarries within St. Louis City and County peaked in the 1880s when there were 69 active limestone quarries[14]. By 1902, only 37 quarries were operating within the city limits [4]. Many quarries were filled in and built upon in either the early 1900s[4] or after World War II during the “post-war housing crunch”[19, 22]. Some were left to fill with water and became junk piles or landfills[2, 13, 1, 9] while a few were turned into parks[21, 22]. There were also a few underground limestone mines created. All limestone quarry and underground mine locations can be seen in Figure 2.