Map of Mount Carbon borough, Pennsylvania

Mount Carbon is a borough in Schuylkill County, Pennsylvania, United States, two miles south of Pottsville. It was formed from North Manheim Township in 1864. The population was 88 in the 2020 census. The borough is the smallest municipality in Schuylkill County.

Mount Carbon borough overview:
Name:	Mount Carbon borough
LSAD Code:	21
LSAD Description:	borough (suffix)
State:	Pennsylvania
County:	Schuylkill County
Incorporated:	1864
Total Area:	0.07 sq mi (0.18 km²)
Land Area:	0.07 sq mi (0.18 km²)
Water Area:	0.00 sq mi (0.00 km²)
Total Population:	91
Population Density:	1,318.84/sq mi (509.20/km²)
ZIP code:	17901
Area code:	570
FIPS code:	4251488

Online Interactive Map

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Mount Carbon online map. Source: Basemap layers from Google Map, Open Street Map (OSM), Arcgisonline, Wmflabs. Boundary Data from Database of Global Administrative Areas.

Mount Carbon location map. Where is Mount Carbon borough?

Mount Carbon location on the U.S. Map. Where is Mount Carbon borough. — Mount Carbon location on the U.S. Map.

Mount Carbon location on the Pennsylvania map. Where is Mount Carbon borough. — Location of Mount Carbon in Pennsylvania.

History

Among the first inhabitants of the settlement of Mt. Carbon were Lewis Murphy and Joseph Porter. The first dam for the Schuylkill Canal was built at Mount Carbon on the Schuylkill River in the spring of 1817. The entire canal was in operation by 1824.

By 1818, Necho Allen resided here, engaged in lumbering, and built a saw-mill. Although coal was to become the principal commodity transported on the canal, the company conveyed lumber and merchandise as well. By 1828 the village consisted of six homes, one store, an office building and a large stone warehouse, used to store produce, which was brought in wagons from surrounding counties to be sent to market in Philadelphia.

In 1829 John White (President of the Mt. Carbon Railroad) began the Mansion House construction here. During this same year, the Norwegian and Mount Carbon Railroad was incorporated and by April 1831, coal was being conveyed through Mt. Carbon from the rich coalfields north and west of present day Pottsville to Philadelphia.

In 1842, the Philadelphia and Reading Railway Company had made Mt. Carbon the termination point of its railroad line from Philadelphia in direct competition with the Schuylkill Canal. The canal company was leased by the railroad in 1870 and the canal north of Port Clinton was abandoned at the signing of the lease. The Philadelphia and Reading Company leased the Mt. Carbon Railroad on May 16, 1862, and merged the line into the parent organization on June 13, 1872.

In 1849, geologist Isaac Lea discovered fossilized footprints of Sauropus in red sandstone in Mount Carbon. Lea contended the tracks were reptilian and that due to the level of strata where the footprints were found, they were from the Devonian Period between 360 and 408 million years old and constituted a new species that he named Sauropus primaevus. The footprints have since been identified as coming from an amphibian now known as Palaeosauropus primaevus from the Mississipian Age over 330 million years ago.