McCauley Mountain in Columbia County, Pennsylvania, east of Catawissa, is notable for both its geology and its industrial past. Rising 1,571 feet, it is a synclinal mountain tied to the Catawissa–McCauley Mountain Synclinorium, with coal on its summit in the narrow McCauley Basin and evidence of an older Illinoian-age ice lobe near its eastern end. Named for early settler Alexander McCauley, who arrived in 1774, the mountain became a coal-mining site after discoveries by 1826, served by a railroad built in 1855 and 1856. Mining continued into the early 20th century, while ponds, wetlands, forests, and streams still make the area environmentally important.