Carbon Cliff is a village in Rock Island County, Illinois, United States.

The Carbon Cliff mines were the earliest worked on the west side of the Rock River.

[3] On November 13, 1906, voters of Hampton territory petitioned the county court for permission to incorporate as a village.

[5][citation needed] From Economical Geology of Illinois, a geological survey by Illinois State Geologist A. H. Worthen, published 1882: The best [pottery establishment] perhaps, in this part of the state, is located at Carbon Cliff, within a few yards of the railroad station of the same name.

Many years ago a company was formed for the purpose of mining coal in the Carbon Cliff bluffs.

The fine strata of potter's clay outcropping all along the exhausted coal seam then attracted attention.

A pottery was started... the buildings are of brick, the principal one is similar to a large railroad round house, with a towering smoke stack in the center.