The Mt. Carmel Colliery was located east of Mt. Carmel Borough on the Shamokin Creek.
The colliery was opened by a slope sunk 165 ft. on the south dip bottom split mammoth vein by Z.P. Boyer and Thomas Jones in 1858. The first ship- ment of 344 tons of coal was made in 1859.
They continued mining the slope gangways to 1861 when William Montelius & Company purchased their interests and they continued mining to 1866 when they failed. After adjusting their financial affairs they continued until 1880 when the breaker was destroyed by fire. During the same year a Mr. Robinson became a member of the firm and under a firm of Montelius, Righter and Robinson the name of the colliery was changed to "Mt. Carmel". This new firm operated to 1882 when they failed. Mr. Leisinring was admitted to the firm and they again resumed work at the colliery.
In 1883, they sunk a water shaft 375 ft. and also sunk the no.3 inside slope on the bottom split mammoth vein that later reached a total length of 900 ft.
In 1885, Montilius and other members of the firm retired and the mining was continued by Thomas M. Righter & Company until 1893 when they claimed their lease on the P&R C&I Company's Mt. Carmel Coal & Iron Tract was ex- hausted and they decided to surrender their lease on this tract. (The Mt. Carmel Colliery leased both from the Locust Mountain Coal & Iron Company's lands and the P&R C&I Company's Mt. Carmel Coal & Iron Tract)
After a long study of the mine by the engineers it was agreed by the P&R C&I Co. to terminate the lease of Thomas Righter & Company and allow them to abandon their section of the mine, allowing it to fill with water.
Thomas Righter & Co. immediately began to erect a barrier dam to prevent the water from the abandoned workings from flowing into that part of the mine that was still active. The dam was completed July 25, 1893.
Thomas Righter & Co. continued operating the colliery on their original lease from the Locust Mountain Coal & Iron Company until 1905 when it was abandoned for the Sayre colliery who had sunk a large shaft ot the north of the colliery.
The total shipments from the Mt. Carmel Colliery was 3,771,379 tons.