Part I
After an 11-week layoff from touring, courtesy of a string of 70-hour work weeks, I was anxious to get back out on the road. On April 21, I pointed the impatient BMW Z4 3.0i toward Pennsylvania with a GPS-full of sights to see—but I wasn't expecting to find either the country's first roller coaster or New Jersey's last covered bridge.
My route started near Reading, PA and featured an unending supply of abandoned houses…
…abandoned bridges (across the Schuylkill River in Mount Carbon)…
…and even abandoned canals. This one, in Port Carbon (sensing a theme here?), used to be part of the Schuylkill Canal, which ran from Port Carbon to Philadelphia before trains made it obsolete. The transportation of rich anthracite coal from nearby mines to the cities was a major function. The canal boomed from about 1825 through the 1860s, but business tapered off quickly thereafter.
This mural shows the canal in its heyday, along with the railroad, a happy couple, and a sidesaddle mule rider. Those were the days, apparently…
Did you know that the first automobile sold in the U.S. was bought by Robert Allison of Port Carbon? His 1898 Winton would have looked like this one:
Continuing on, I soon arrived in Tamaqua (pronounced tah-mah'-quah), which was named after the Chief of the Turkey Clan among the Tuscarora Indians. I couldn't help reveling in the diversity of houses along Broad Street. Here is a small selection:
I was also taken by this angelic marble harpist.
It was an overcast day, with major rainstorms threatened for the evening, so it was tough getting good photos. Back home, in an effort to bring out the colors that were masked by the leaden skies, I occasionally got a bit carried away. But it was a striking place, honest!
The Tamaqua Railroad Station still stands proudly, although the trains no longer stop here. Eight sets of tracks used to go through town, but most are now under a parking lot for the Dollar General Store, such being Progress. The restored station features a restaurant and a couple of shops. The brightly painted switcher engine, incidentally, was steam-powered. It did not have a boiler, however, so it would be filled to a high pressure from an external source and would run about (happily, it seems) until needing a refill.
A few miles northeast from Tamaqua sits the coal-mining town of Lansford, named after Asa Lansford Foster—who, as far as I know, is not one of my ancestors. He came to Pennsylvania as a young man and soon proved very adept at a number of businesses, including merchandise, newspapers, and real estate. At one point, he looked into the operation of steamboats on the Susquehanna River. This enterprise did not end well, as the "Cadorus" exploded spectacularly on its maiden voyage. To quote from a rootsweb biographical sketch, "Mr. Foster was on board, but being a good swimmer and fortunately blown into the water with only slight injuries, narrowly escaped with his life."
Asa Lansford Foster went on to make, lose, and remake several fortunes, eventually turning to coal mining and discovering Pennsylvania's huge Black Creek Coal Basin. Mining was a prosperous business in those days, but much more so for the owners, such as Asa, and much less so for the miners themselves. These historical photos show miners shoring up the ceiling of a mine and sorting the pieces of coal by size. And, yes, those are children doing the sorting…
Since mining was so dangerous, praying for safety seemed advisable and the people of Lansford erected numerous churches. Lansford's first church was the Welsh Congregational in 1850, which still exists (although a bit perilously, as seen below). With escalating "anthracite prosperity" came larger and more ornate examples.
The earliest railroads in the U.S. used either horse-drawn railcars or gravity. The Mauch Chunk Switchback Railway was an example of the latter approach. It started operations in 1827, making it the second railroad in the country, and it carried coal from the Lansford / Summit Hill area down to the town of Mauch Chunk on the Lehigh River, a run of 9 miles. A loaded car could coast the distance downhill in about half an hour—but it took mules 4 hours to drag the car back up to the top. The ride down was so exciting, that before long the railway offered passenger service. In places, the passenger cars would reach 50 mph, and the Switchback Railway is considered to be the first "roller coaster" in the country.
I think this is what's left of one of the stops—perhaps the same one pictured in the first historical photo below (courtesy of the National Registry of Historic Places; other historic photos are from the excellent website The Switchback Gravity Railroad). The tracks and almost all of the buildings are long gone now, although hikers and mountain bikers can follow the route. But in its day, the Switchback Railway proved to be a very popular tourist attraction, and the likes of President Ulysses S. Grant and Thomas Edison are known to have enjoyed the ride.
As I drove along the aptly named Hill Road into Mauch Chunk, I stopped to get a photo looking down from the mountain onto the town. As so often happens, when I went back to my car I discovered something even more interesting behind it! These ruins are what's left of the "Erwin Castle," which had been the stone residence of Dr. Bertine S. Erwin, starting in the late 1800s. He was the physician for the powerful Packer family in Mauch Chunk, but his castle began to crumble around him even while he still lived there. The current owner of the property is planning to build a new cottage on this site, using the ruins as part of the structure.
Before touring Mauch Chunk, I detoured over to the Lehigh Gorge State Park, in search of the elusive Turn Hole Tunnel. In 1866, the Lehigh and Susquehanna Railroad built tracks across the river and tunneled straight through the cliff on the far side. (Why they dug the tunnel, rather than routing the tracks a couple of hundred feet farther north, is a mystery to me.) The tunnel was used until being condemned in 1910, but the bridge and tunnel still served as a siding thereafter until being abandoned in about 1950. I had no idea exactly where the tunnel was located, but I drove to the end of the park road, walked to the river, and there it was.
Upon noticing people in the mouth of the tunnel, I became determined to get there myself. A long walk along the river, across the bridge, and around the outside of the cliff brought me to the other end. Prospective tourists, please note the following: If you want to go through the tunnel, like I did, think about bringing a flashlight! And maybe a hard hat. Inside the tunnel, there were many railroad ties, pot holes, and a large number of rocks that have fallen from the ceiling. (I guess it was condemned for a good reason…)
Anyway, the view from the mouth of the tunnel over the Leheigh River was well worth the journey. Despite the threatening skies, lots of folks were sightseeing, hiking, or fishing.
I know trees need water, but I never knew they would bend over and drink directly from a river.
Backtracking across the Lehigh, it was time to explore Mauch Chunk, now known as Jim Thorpe, PA, named after the famous sports hero. The town was founded in 1818, and its original name means "Bear Mountain" in the language of the Lenape Indians. It's often called "the Switzerland of Pennsylvania," and artists at the time portrayed it rather more Alpine and vertical than the real thing—compare this print with the historical photo, for example:
Given its coal-mining background, Mauch Chunk / Jim Thorpe also has its share of churches. This striking old chapel is no longer used, however.
Okay, I got a little carried away again with the post-processing on this photo. But it really was a strikingly purple house!
Most people have heard of the "Molly Maguires," a secret labor organization of Irish coal miners. Remember the photo of the kids sorting coal? The Molly Maguires protested working conditions, low pay, "company store" abuses, and other inequities, often resorting to beating or even murdering mine owners and supervisors, and the police who tried to maintain order. They operated this "anarchic, martial law" for more than 20 years before a Pinkerton Detective Co. agent infiltrated the society, learned their secrets, and gathered evidence on 50 murders, at which point the law stepped in. Four of the Molly Maguires were tried, sentenced, and hanged at the Old Jail in Mauch Chunk in 1877. In all, approximately 20 members of the organization were hanged, some convicted by juries with non-English-speaking members.
Were the Molly Maguires a domestic terrorist organization? Or a dedicated band of laborers trying to address horrific abuses? You can decide for yourself, but an interesting pair of contrasting opinions can be found at [url=http://ufcw324.org/About_Us/Mission_and_History/Labor_History/Flogging_Molly_–_A_Brief_History_of_the_Molly_Maguires/]UFCW: A Brief History of the Molly Maguires[/url] and The Molly Maguires.
On a cheerier note, here's a vintage painting of downtown Mauch Chunk, showing the Hotel Switzerland sandwiched in-between the Armbruster House and the Central Hotel (originally the Electric Light Building. The Switzerland survived, the others not so much.
The 1861 mansion of railroad baron and Lehigh University founder Asa Packer sits on top of the hill and was left to the town by his daughter, Mary Packer Cummings. It sat vacant and neglected from 1912-1956, but was renovated and is now open for tours.
Slightly further up Packer Hill is the mansion of Harry Packer, Asa's son, for whom it was built in 1874 as a wedding present. In 1983, the mansion was in danger of collapsing, but the incredible efforts of Robert and Patricia Handwerk resulted in a sound structure and a model bed and breakfast. Somewhere along the way, this building served as the inspiration for the Haunted House at Disney World.
Did I mention that Jim Thorpe never actually set foot in the town that bears his name? He was a native of Oklahoma and went to college in Carlisle, PA. After his death, his widow petitioned the State to put up a statue in his honor—but Oklahoma refused. Patricia Thorpe cut a deal with Mauch Chunk, which was looking to build upon its tourist trade, and ol' Jim is now buried here with two statues in his honor! Jim Thorpe was born in 1887 and was a direct descendant of Chief Black Hawk of the Sac and Fox Indian Tribes. In the 1912 World Olympics in Stockholm, he won gold medals in both the pentathlon and decathlon, setting records that were not broken until decades later. The King of Sweden told him, "Sir, you are the greatest athlete in the world!" He subsequently played both professional baseball and football and was named ABC's "Sports Athlete of the Century."
I mean, what was Oklahoma thinking??
Rick F.