Carter Mine

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Location: Little Britain township, Lancaster County

The mine was probably opened and operated by Isaac Tyson, about 1830. In 1867 it was 120 feet deep and “yielding a large quatitity of chromic iron of good quality” (Rand, 1867). The mine was closed before 1875 because the operators were unable to cope with water in the shafts.

Field evidence at this locality corroborates Rand’s estimate of the mine quoted above but conflicts so markedly with most published infromation about it that another, much smaller Carter mine may exist elsewhere in the district. Although reportedly small and not worth much, the Carter mine consists of three caved shafts, supposedly 200 feet deep, and remnants of large and extensive dumps. The ore is reported to be low grade and mostly disseminated but the writers found a great deal of massive chromite on the dumps similar to the high grade ore from the Wood mine, as well as some disseminated chromite. One specimen of massive chromite from the dump is magnetic. No analyses are available.

Brookite: this rare mineral, the monoclinic form of titanic acid, has also been found in this State. … has been found at Carter's Chrome Mine, Lancaster County … and have been found in chrome sand from the washings of West Nottingham. (Genth, Mineralology of Pennsylvania, 1875)

The Carter mine was briefly active about 1915, when the Texas Mining and Manufacturing Co., of New York, tried to reopen it, but the low price of ore and scarcity of labor forced them to close after producing about 40 tons (Knopf, 1922, p. 97). This ore was probably from reworking the dumps; all three shafts are caved and show no signs of having been open at any time during the 20th century. (Pearre and Heyl).