Carbon County

I'm not sure how commonly this is known, but did you realize that every one of the 67 counties in Pennsylvania, in addition to being home to many other markers, has a PHMC marker of its very own? I've been trying to figure out the best way to talk about these, but as is so often the case, I'm probably overthinking the matter and I'm just going to treat them like the other markers.

The marker for each county is found in the vicinity of the county courthouse, and the community where the county courthouse is located is known as the county seat. (The lone exception to this rule is Philadelphia County, which consists entirely of the city of Philadelphia - it is its own county seat.) So if you haven't had occasion to wander past the courthouse of a given county, odds are you've never seen one of these markers.

(Edit: Karen Galle, of the PHMC, tells me in a comment below that Montgomery County actually does not have its own marker.)

The marker is on Susquehanna
Street, on a one-way section of
the street, outside the courthouse
and opposite the Hotel
Switzerland, in Jim Thorpe

By sheer happenstance, the first of these markers that I was able to collect on my quest was that of Carbon County, which is fairly close to where I now live.

Carbon County took a while to come into being what it is. It started as part of Bucks County, which was one of the three original counties established by William Penn himself when he set his charter. Bucks County was later broken down into a few smaller counties, one of which was Northampton. Northampton County was later broken down into smaller counties; Monroe County was formed from part of Northampton and also part of Pike County, and eventually, part of that county became Carbon County. It's the only county in the commonwealth which gets its name from the periodic table of elements, as carbon is a key component of the region's major source of wealth - coal.

The first settlement of what eventually became Carbon County was the ill-fated Gnadenhuetten, of which I wrote in one of this blog's earliest entries. Established in 1746 and destroyed in 1755, its demise led to the founding of the community of Weissport across the river. In 1791, a man named Philip Ginter was hunting near what is today the community of Summit Hill when he discovered a curious black outcropping. He took a piece to Fort Allen, which was in what today is Weissport, where it was determined to be anthracite coal. From this discovery was born the Lehigh Coal and Navigation Company, the brief Canal Age of Pennsylvania, and ultimately, Carbon County.

Tribute to the coal history of the
region, inside one of the Reading &
Northern train cars which visits the
Lehigh Gorge each day

The Lehigh Coal and Navigation Company was established in 1818, the same year as the community of Mauch Chunk. The town (pronounced "mawk chunk") took its name from the Lenni Lenape language, and means "bear place" or "bear mountain." It was set up as a company town, but today is the county seat. In addition to being home to the LC&N's operations, it became a popular tourist attraction, as the local natural beauties reminded many of Europe - leading to its nickname, "the Switzerland of America." The area was home to the Switchback Railroad, largely regarded as the world's first roller coaster. This ingenious contraption was first created as an easy and safe way to bring coal down from the mountains, but soon became a recreational activity. It has its own marker, so it likewise got its own blog post.

Anthracite coal in the park opposite the Lehigh
Coal and Navigation Company building.
Husband included for scale.

LC&N was founded by two men - Erskine Hazard, who is a legitimate contender for 'guy with the coolest name,' and Josiah White. If that name sounds familiar, it's probably because you've been to Hugh Moore Canal Park, in Easton, Northampton County. Josiah White was a prominent figurehead in the establishment of the use of Pennsylvania's canals for the transport of - what else? Coal. That's also the subject of a future blog post.

The LC&N continued operations until 1964. Its headquarters, an elegant red brick building, still stands on Susquehanna Street in Mauch Chunk, today known as Jim Thorpe, across from the county courthouse. An adjacent park is home to a massive piece of coal as pictured here; my husband Kevin is 5'9" tall, which should give you an idea of how big this thing is. The plaque at its base reads as follows: This black diamond is a piece of the mammoth coal vein found in the Panther Valley. It was placed here on August 28, 1976 as a monument to the enterprising spirit of men such as Josiah White and Erskine Hazard, whose early pioneering efforts produced the second American Revolution, the Industrial Revolution. This monument was made available through the generosity of the industry and the miners. Anthracite was first discovered near here in Summit Hill in 1791. Weight: 15,100 lbs. Content: 99% pure carbon. Energy content: 205,360,000 British Thermal Units (BTUs).

The tomb of Olympic medalist Jim Thorpe

Mauch Chunk remained Mauch Chunk until 1954, when it was changed in honor of Native American athlete and Olympian Jim Thorpe. His widow Patricia made arrangements with the town for her husband to be buried there, and his grave is a local landmark with plaques, flags, tribute artworks, and a series of signs detailing his life and athletic career.

Carbon County's history is a curious one. The Old Jail still stands on Broadway in Jim Thorpe; this was the site of several of the infamous Molly Maguire executions, and served as the county prison until very late in the 20th century. It's a tourist attraction now, well known for being haunted; I've been inside twice and it gives me the chills. (It too has its own blog post.) It was one of the spots where they filmed the movie The Molly Maguires, starring Sean Connery and Richard Harris. Other parts of the movie were filmed at the nearby Eckley Miner's Village, which is today a piece of living history where visitors can learn what life was like for these hardworking souls. (Eckley Miner's Village is actually in Luzerne County, though.)

Carbon County Courthouse, with
its well-loved bell tower

Carbon County is also home to a thriving arts community; for example, the Mauch Chunk Opera House still offers live music performances and plays year round, just as it has done since 1881. Museums and libraries have brought culture to the county for decades, such as the historic Dimmick Memorial Library. The Packer mansions (also subjects of a blog post) overlook the Lehigh River and are open for tours or overnight stays. There are also many shopping and dining options in the county, including the Hotel Switzerland, the oldest business in Jim Thorpe still in operation; it has occupied its spot across from the courthouse since 1830. It still offers overnight lodging and is home to the Molly Maguires Pub, which was frequented by the cast of The Molly Maguires during filming - they have pictures on the wall to prove it.

Tourists today can experience many of the same attractions which brought visitors during the county's heyday. The Lehigh Gorge Scenic Railway offers multiple daily train rides, while hiking paths lead visitors to waterfalls and scenic overlooks throughout the county. A drive to the top of one of the mountains offers a "free 100 mile view," and there are several facilities for fishing, camping, rafting, and hunting, such as Lehigh Gorge State Park. It's been visited by Benjamin Franklin, John James Audubon, and Count Zinzendorf (though as I noted in my post about Pilger Ruh, that guy's been everywhere).

Aesthetically, it's been noted that the county still maintains much of its wild beauty. In her book Postcard History: Carbon County, Rebecca Rabenold-Finsel shares a marvelous quote from an 1877 book called Highways and Byways of American Travel, which sums up Carbon County just as well today as it did then.

"Such... rough and tumble experience, climbing mountains, falling over rocks, exploring wild ravines, diving into coal mines, and riding on every description of conveyance which it has entered into the mind of man to run on."

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Sources and Further Reading:

Official website of Carbon County, Pennsylvania

Official website of Jim Thorpe, the county seat

Mauch Chunk Historical Society of Carbon County

Bartholomew, Ann M.; Metz, Lance E.; Kneis, Michael. Delaware and Lehigh Canals (First ed.). Oak Printing Company, Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, 1989.

Rabenold-Finsel, Rebecca M. Postcard History: Carbon County. Arcadia Publishing, 2004.

Brenckman, Fred, Official Commonwealth Historian. History of Carbon County, Pennsylvania. J. Nungesser, Harrisburg, PA, 1918. E-reprint courtesy of Archive.org.

Carbon County at the Historical Marker Database

If you've enjoyed this, please leave a comment!

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Except where indicated, all writing and photography on this blog is the intellectual property of Laura Klotz. This blog is written with permission of the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission. I am not employed by the PHMC. All rights reserved.