On July 8, 1848, Scientific American announced in a single sentence the discovery of a copper mine in Carlisle: “A mine of copper ore has been discovered in Carlisle, Massachusetts, near the road leading to Concord.” Three months later, in October 1848, Scientific American reported that the ore from the “recently discovered” Carlisle copper mine, “is said to be rich and abundant,” and “three companies are now sinking, upon the vein or veins.” By the time of these announcements, however, the Carlisle copper mine had, according to historian Sidney Bull, been in operation for almost a decade. Why the mine did not draw the attention of Scientific American until the summer of 1848, is not known.
 
According to Carlisle historian, Sidney A. Bull, the Carlisle copper mine, although a small-scale operation, was in business for almost a decade, beginning in 1840. During this time period the mine was operated by Henry N. Hooper & Company of Boston, church bell founders, who were in charge of the intermittent work carried out at the mine. During this time period, “a little village” surrounded the mine, including “four miners’ dwellings, a shaft house, a blacksmith shop, cookhouse, barn, and other buildings.”
 
Ultimately, however, long-term operation of the Carlisle copper mine proved too expensive. Initially, Hooper & Company sunk a shaft to a depth of about 220 feet to extract the ore. Once extracted, however, the ore had to be hauled by ox to Boston for smelting. This practice “proved so expensive that Hooper & Company, who were leading the church bell founders and casters in the country at that time, decided to erect a smelter of their own on the property.” This initiative, however, did not remove the Company’s financial hurdles. As “the fumes from the smelter would injure vegetation, it became necessary for the company to purchase the adjoining farms, in order to relieve them of the liability of paying damages.” Ultimately, Hooper & Company were forced to abandon this plan, as it too proved prohibitively expensive.
 
Although mine production was “fairly satisfactory, and probably furnished the company with the copper used in connection with their bell founding, and perhaps more,” in 1849 the industry was abandoned “upon the discovery of the Lake Superior copper mines in Michigan.”
 
Historical information drawn from: Sidney A. Bull. (1920). History of the Town of Carlisle, Massachusetts, 1754-1920, pp. 242-243. Click on the button below to read Bull’s history of the Carlisle copper mine.